Kenneth Brophy

Ritual and remembrance at a prehistoric ceremonial complex in central Scotland: excavations at Forteviot, Perth and Kinross

Aerial photography and excavations have brought to notice a major prehistoric ceremonial complex in central Scotland comparable to Stonehenge, although largely built in earth and timber. Beginning, like Stonehenge, as a cremation cemetery, it launched its monumentality by means of an immense circle of tree trunks, and developed it with smaller circles of posts and an earth bank (henge). A change of political mood in the Early Bronze Age is marked by one of Scotlands best preserved dagger-burials in a stone cist with an engraved lid. The perishable (or reusable) materials meant that this great centre lay for millennia under ploughed fields, until it was adopted, by design or by chance, as a centre of the Pictish kings.

Archaeology without -isms

This paper examines the division that has grown up in contemporary archaeology between practical and theoretical branches of the discipline. It argues that the two sides of this schism are archaeological versions of objectivism and subjectivism, and that they really represent a single dualism. To break out of this, what is needed is an approach to thinking and doing archaeology that recognises the embodied nature of archaeological engagements with material culture, together with an understanding of the emergent, relational character of archaeological data. In the light of this discussion, we attempt to re-define the building blocks of archaeology (material culture and the past), and to show with a case study how such an archaeology might generate new insights in practice.

Wood and Fire: Scotland’s Timber Cursus Monuments

This paper offers the first comprehensive overview of Scotland’s early Neolithic timber cursus monuments. This small group of sites has, in recent years, been viewed as a significant element of the early Neolithic repertoire in northern Britain, and forerunner to the later earthwork cursus monuments found across the British Isles; but as yet their treatment has been at a largely superficial level. The article draws together the evidence from excavations, cropmarks and the authors’ own fieldwork. As well as describing the monuments, the study also offers a new interpretation of the construction, role and destruction of these monuments within the context of the woodland world of lowland Scotland in the first half of the fourth millennium BC.

Build N Burn: Using Fire as a Tool to Evoke, Educate and Entertain

The visceral nature of fire was exploited in the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods in Britain by the burning down of timber buildings and monuments, as well as the cremation of the dead. These big fires would have created memories, perhaps even ‘flashbulb memories’, and this powerful mnemonic aspect of fire was likely of significance to the social and religious lives of individuals, families and communities. This article introduces the Build N Burn concept, where fires are recreated and deployed alongside public talks, performances, experimental archaeology activities and demonstrations by craft specialists to create memorable and informative public events. Three public engagements to date, two on the island of Arran and one in Caithness, both Scotland, are described here. In each case, we constructed replica timber structures inspired by local prehistoric sites, and then burned these down in a free-to-attend public event at dusk, evoking the culmination of a prehistoric festival. Build N Burn has, at its core, the principle of delivering memorable experiences for the public inspired by prehistory, underpinned by research and experiment, using events which draw on cross-sectoral collaboration and working with local communities. This article offers a critical reflection on work to date, and discusses future potential for such activities, utilizing the mnemonic power and transformational potential of fire for public engagement and experimental archaeology.

Justice, development and the land: the social context of Scotland’s energy transition

Abstract Scotland, like many other countries, is undergoing a transition to renewable energy. This paper discusses the social context within which this transition is taking place and which is conditioning the possibilities for energy development and its effects on people. In particular, the paper explores historically-rooted conflicts relating to land rights and wild land protection, considering these issues and their relationship to energy development in terms of landscape justice (i.e. the principle of fairness in the ways people relate to the landscape and to each other through the landscape). Pursuing a more just settlement between people and landscape is often a matter of understanding problematic pasts and working to overcome their harmful legacies. It is argued that there is an important role for heritage practice in helping to deliver energy development which takes the historical, social and cultural context more fully into account and thereby helps to bring about a more just settlement between people and the landscape.

Building the Great Stone Circles of the North. Edited by Colin Richards. Pp. xix and 322, Illus 244. Windgather Press, 2013. Price: £39.95. ISBN 978 190968 612 0

variables at play. In this timely volume, Bradley ranges far and wide to help us break free from unhelpful dimensions of current discourse. The criticisms he levels are more than justified. In British prehistoric artefact studies, typologies inherited from the 1970s and 1980s continue to inform classifications (the present reviewer is certainly guilty). Although the Portable Antiquities Scheme and Treasure Act have led to a multi-fold increase in some periods and object types, traditional typologies continue to be poured into the mould rather than being used to break it. This valuable book is an important step in the long and complex process of finding the right balance between more traditional, classificatory approaches and more imaginative and novel thinking.

Half Life. NVA and National Theatre of Scotland, Kilmartin Glen, Argyll

For two weeks in September 2007, the valley of Kilmartin became a pilgrimage site again. Half Life was an ambitious landscape event played out across the canvas of the familiar Kilmartin Glen, an event that intermingled ideas about the prehistoric past with our engagements with it in the contemporary world - a challenging combination. Half Life is the latest in a series of ambitious large-scale public artworks by the environmental arts organisation, NVA. This acronym stands for nacionale vitae activae (‘the right to influence public affairs’). Over the past 15 years, the group have been responsible for a number of high-profile landscape art events including ‘The Storr: Unfolding Landscape on Skye’, and ‘The Path’ in Glen Lyon. Half Life seems an even more ambitious project than usual, involving the collaboration of artists in a number of fields, from landscape art to experimental music, as well as the involvement of the National Theatre of Scotland. Half Life was described in pre-publicity as a ‘journey i...