Hannah Cobb

Straight down the line? A queer consideration of hunter-gatherer studies in north-west Europe

Abstract Hunter-gatherer studies have often been at the forefront of feminist critiques in archaeology, and have remained a clear front on which feminist issues are still regularly raised. While these approaches have challenged the androcentric stereotypes upon which archaeological interpretations of hunter-gatherers have been based, current accounts continue to construct their interpretations based around modern Western heteronormative concepts of identity. By presenting an alternative interpretation of the construction of hunter-gatherer identity from the west coast of Scotland, this paper will demonstrate that, through the application of queer theory to hunter-gatherer studies, we may finally move away from the pervasive heteronormative stereotypes upon which they have been constructed.

Assembling archaeological pedagogy. A theoretical framework for valuing pedagogy in archaeological interpretation and practice

Drawing on relational theoretical perspectives in archaeological discourse, this paper considers how we can address the undervaluation of pedagogy and pedagogic research in archaeology. Through examining the relationships between fieldwork, teaching, and research, in light of Ingolds concept of the meshwork and DeLandas assemblage theory, the division between teaching and research is undermined, and students and pedagogy are recentred as fundamental to the production of archaeological knowledge. This paper provides a theoretical grounding for resituating our current practices, suggests practical means for change, and highlights the benefit to the archaeological discipline arising from a revaluation of archaeological pedagogic research and an enmeshed understanding of archaeological practice.

Reconsidering Fieldwork, an Introduction: Confronting Tensions in Fieldwork and Theory

The boat returns to its noost providing a spectacular view of the croft. All is in order, ready for the coming winter, the peat is cut and the animals graze by the shore. The house stands on a small knoll overlooking the sea at Tobha Beag. A warm light flickers in one of its narrow windows and smoke drifts across the bay from its chimney. A stone outhouse lies within the well maintained vegetable plot and a lambing pen stands empty, awaiting the coming spring.

Archaeology for All. Community Archaeology in the Early 21st Century: Participation, Practice and Impact

Archaeology and the City have situated their volume within a possibly emergent — if academic and highly nuanced — conversation within archaeology, the chapters themselves are generally accessible and as equally relevant to wider audiences as those within Object Stories. Traveling from the infinitely intimate scale of objects to the overwhelming and ever-expanding scale of today’s cities, these two edited volumes offer refreshing new perspectives on the complex entanglements that fabricate our living worlds.

Assembling places and persons: A tenth-century Viking boat burial from Swordle Bay on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, western Scotland

Abstract A rare, intact Viking boat burial in western Scotland contained a rich assemblage of grave goods, providing clues to the identity and origins of both the interred individual and the people who gathered to create the site. The burial evokes the mundane and the exotic, past and present, as well as local, national and international identities. Isotopic analysis of the teeth hints at a possible Scandinavian origin for the deceased, while Scottish, Irish and Scandinavian connections are attested by the grave goods. Weapons indicate a warrior of high status; other objects imply connections to daily life, cooking and work, farming and food production. The burial site is itself rich in symbolic associations, being close to a Neolithic burial cairn, the stones of which may have been incorporated into the grave.

Personal, Political, Pedagogic: Challenging the Binary Bind in Archaeological Teaching, Learning and Fieldwork

In this paper, we consider how we can undercut the various binaries of gender and sexuality in archaeological practice and particularly in our teaching. We argue that taking an assemblage theory approach enables us to look at the multiplicity of identities of those practicing archaeology as different and intersecting assemblages that bring one another into being through their connections at different scales. In particular, we examine how this approach can be applied to archaeological pedagogy and how this in turn enables us to move away from modern binary distinctions about sex and gender identities from the ‘bottom up’, fostering an approach in our students that will then go on to be developed in professional practice.

From Knowing into Telling: A Dialogue in Five Parts

The issues raised by different kinds of oral-historical research are explored here through a dialogue between two projects. In one case, the Alderley Sandhills Project, this work has been completed; in the other, the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project, the oral-historical research is in its early stages. Through a series of interactions, this article raises a number of different questions that oral-historical research posed at Alderley Sandhills, and it considers the ramifications of and the possible differences in these questions in the case of Ardnamurchan. Adoption of a nonlinear structure echoes one of the many fascinating aspects of oral-historical research itself.

Field Schools, Transferable Skills and Enhancing Employability

During the summer months of 2004 and 2005, the archaeology team of the History, Classics and Archaeology Subject Centre (Higher Education Academy (HEA)) carried out the most comprehensive survey of the opinions and experiences of archaeological fieldwork among archaeology students and staff in the UK. Our aim was to investigate perceptions and expectations of fieldwork in archaeology at undergraduate degree level in Britain. To do this, we visited 32 excavations that were either explicitly run as field schools or that provided training opportunities for archaeology undergraduates. In this chapter, we outline some of the key findings of this study in order to explore the role of field schools in providing transferable skills and enhancing employability.