Artefacts, Records, Monuments and Sites
10 April 2008
Led by Dr Rebecca Jones, RCAHMS, in collaboration with Professor Ian Ralston, University of Edinburgh.
Workshop Summary
This workshop will examine opportunities created by the linkages between portable antiquities and the monuments, sites and landscape settings from which they have been collected. These opportunities are framed by the policies of the bodies responsible for the assessment of Scotland's archaeological resources. The public dissemination of knowledge relating to this important material will also be considered.
The workshop will explore two key areas:
- The interface between artefacts and sites - the blurring between what is defined as a portable antiquity and what is defined as a site. For example, there are portable 'sites' such as cross-incised slabs and cup-marked stones. To where have these been moved, and are they now being transported to new positions? Who is looking after them?
- Contextualising records - re-establishing links between 'artefact' and 'sites'.
Organiser Biographies
Professor Ian Ralston is Chair in Later European Prehistory at the University of Edinburgh. His interests include the European Iron Age, Scottish archaeology of all periods, and the development of applied archaeology. He is a former Chair of the Institute of Field Archaeologists and is presently Chair of the Scottish Archaeological Finds Allocation Panel. Recent publications include Archaeological Resource Management in the UK: an introduction (edited with J Hunter, Sutton 2006), Celtic fortifications (Tempus 2006) and Scotland after the Ice Age (edited with K J Edwards, Edinburgh 2003). He is a Fellow of the Societies of Antiquaries of Scotland and London, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Member of the Institute of Field Archaeologists.
Dr Rebecca Jones is an Operational Manager in Survey and Recording for RCAHMS with specific responsibility for the Database and Aerial Survey programmes, including information management and standards. Her research interests focus on the archaeology of the Roman army (particularly in Scotland and Wales), and she has recently been working with Historic Scotland on their nomination of the Antonine Wall as a World Heritage Site. Publications include Roman Camps in Wales and the Marches (with J L Davies, University of Wales Press 2006). She is a Fellow of the Societies of Antiquaries of Scotland and London and a Member of the Institute of Field Archaeologists.
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