archaeology

Recordings of a backlog of past BHS Winter Talks have now been edited and added to this website

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My apologies for not being able to edit and upload the following talks until now, but we are now up to date – until our January Zoom talk comes along in eleven days!

Lying at the foot of Glen Lyon, the talk about the small community in Ardtrasgairt covers the changes in this working class community who lived there in the mid to late 19th century, and examines the effect of dramatic changes as industrialisation progressed. Watch here: ‘Ardtrasgairt – A potrait of a small Highland Community in the 19th Century’

Prehistoric rock art in Scotland is mostly known for its cupmarks, cup-and-rings and other circular imagery.  In this talk Dr. Joana Valdez-Tullett discussed the results of Scotland’s Rock Art Project research in Loch Tay, and how carvings in this region relate to other areas in Scotland and the wider Atlantic façade. Watch here: ‘From Loch Tay to the Atlantic Façade‘

Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) are a significant threat to our environments, native wildlife, economy, and in some cases to our health. The Scottish Invasive Species Initiative (SISI) is a project set up to tackle invasive non-native species, and Mark from SISI, will talk about the work he has done within the Esk & Tay catchment area and how invasive plants, particularly Giant Hogweed and Japanese Knotweed have been controlled. Watch here: ‘Strategic Control of Invasive Non-Native Species in a River System’

The transformation of Aberfeldy from a few hovels to the smart town we know today, took place during the industrial revolution and was profoundly influenced by it.  Alan Fisher, whose family has a history in the town spanning over 200 years, discussed Aberfeldy’s development with particular focus on the history of its wool, whisky and laundry industries. Watch here: ‘Aberfeldy’s Industrial Revolution’

You can view these talks by using the links above for each one, but you can also access these by using the website “Recorded Winter Talks” page at https://breadalbane-heritage.org.uk/recorded-winter-talks/, which has links to all of the 28 recorded talks since September 2020. We were not permitted to record a few talks within this period which explains why there are some gaps in the winter season dates.

Margaret E C Stewart Contribution to Scottish Archaeology

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Digging in the Archives for Margaret E C Stewart: The Contribution of Women to Scottish Archaeology in the Twentieth Century

Amy Jo Kearton, a graduate in History from the University of Glasgow in 2024, undertook research as part of her Honours’ degree dissertation aimed to help locate women within the history of Scottish archaeology and focused on Margaret Stewart because her archaeological career represented the wider achievements of female archaeologists in twentieth-century Scotland.

From her extensive research for her dissertation, Amy Jo recently wrote a summary profile of Margaret in which she explored the process of excavating Margaret from historical records and then delved into Margaret’s involvement with the Breadalbane Heritage Society. 

This was presented and uploaded as a blog on our website in December 2024.

You can read that profile of Margaret by clicking on this link:  https://breadalbane-heritage.org.uk/about/history/margaret-e-c-stewart-in-breadalbane-heritage-society/

As the blog attracted a lot of interest, Amy Jo consented to us publishing her full dissertation on our website, and here is an introductory extract from the dissertation:

Overall, this life history of Margaret aims to assess the place of individual women in Scottish archaeology.

Chapter One considers Margaret’s motivations to pursue archaeology and her education under Gordon Childe at the University of Edinburgh.

The second chapter delves into Margaret’s career using representative examples to understand how she became a respected archaeologist.

The final chapter examines Margaret’s public and administrative work within numerous societies.

By integrating the different strands of her personal and professional life, this dissertation demonstrates how Margaret navigated the field and constructed an accomplished career. In doing so, Margaret is positioned within the disciplinary history of Scottish archaeology and a wider circle of female archaeologists.

Therefore, Margaret’s achievements in Scottish archaeology can be celebrated alongside those of women throughout the twentieth century.

You can read Amy Jo’s full dissertation on the website here:  https://breadalbane-heritage.org.uk/margaret-e-c-stewart-contribution-to-scottish-archaeology/

Rock Art from Loch Tay to the Atlantic Façade

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Our next winter talk, ‘Rock Art from Loch Tay to the Atlantic Façade’ will be presented only on Zoom by Dr. Joana Valdez-Tullett on Friday, 21st February, at 7.30 p.m., and we invite you to attend this free talk.

Joana is a Technical Specialist at Wessex Archaeology and a part-time teacher at Durham University. She was a Post-doctoral Research Assistant for almost five years with the Scottish Rock Art Project and has wide experience in rock art research of various periods, including Palaeolithic Art.  She has been studying and investigating rock art from a number of western European countries (Portugal, Spain, Britain and Ireland) since 2003.

Recent research has suggested that the rock art tradition had a very important role in people’s lives during the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods. Joana will discuss results of the research from the Scotland Rock Art Project in Loch Tay, and how carvings in this region relate to other areas in Scotland and the wider Atlantic façade.

If you wish more information on, or want to register for, this talk, please contact Ian at bhsaberfeldy@gmail.com and he will send you the Zoom link.

Margaret E. C. Stewart: Our first Honarary President

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Profile researched by Amy Jo Kearton

Introduction:

Margaret Stewart at the Carse Farm excavation, 1964

In 1962, Dr. Margaret Enid Crichton Stewart who played a central role in community archaeology in Perthshire, was instrumental in encouraging the formation of the present-day Breadalbane Heritage Society.

Amy Jo Kearton, a recent graduate in History from the University of Glasgow, undertook research as part of her Honours’ degree dissertation aiming to help locate women within the history of Scottish archaeology. She focused on Margaret Stewart because her archaeological career represented the wider achievements of female archaeologists in twentieth-century Scotland.

From her dissertation work, Amy Jo has written a profile of Margaret in which she explores the process of excavating Margaret from historical records and then digs into Margaret’s involvement with the Breadalbane Heritage Society.  You can read her profile of Margaret by clicking on this link:  https://breadalbane-heritage.org.uk/about/history/margaret-e-c-stewart-in-breadalbane-heritage-society/

February Zoom Talk

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Kilmartin Glen is one of Scotland’s most important Prehistoric landscapes with many important burial and ritual sites, including cairns, rock art sites, standing stones and a stone circle. 

Dr. Sharon Webb came to Kilmartin Museum as Curator in 2003 and has served as Director from 2004. She instigated plans for redeveloping the Museum in 2012 and led the team that raised over £7 million to bring those plans to fruition. The new £7.8 million Museum facility opened in September last year to celebrate this special place, and to care for over 40,000 archaeological artefacts from all over Argyll. 

As well as playing a leading role in the renewal of our facilities, Sharon inher current role of Director and Curator of the Kilmartin Museum is guiding the development of new exhibitions and caring for the Museum’s Collections. She was awarded an MBE for services to Heritage and Archaeology in 2015.

The Early Medieval Sculpture of Highland Perthshire

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Although Perthshire was part of Pictland, the corpus of Early Medieval sculpture in north-west or “Highland” Perthshire comprises very few Pictish stones.  The prominence of simple crosses – linear, sunken and outline – which have their origins in the Scots’ kingdom of Dál Riata, suggests not only the spread of Christianity from the west but perhaps even gradual Scottish settlement.

In this talk, John Borland will give an overview of the early medieval sculpture of Highland Perthshire, follow its distribution from west to east along the glens and straths, highlighting what is rare and unusual.  He will examine the distribution of the sculpture to see what that tells us about its cultural origins and thus assess just how “Pictish” this part of Perthshire was.

John Borland worked as an archaeological surveyor for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and Historic Scotland (RCAHMS) and then Historic Environment Scotland (HES) for 36 years, retiring as Measured Survey Manager in May 2020.  In that time, John had the opportunity to survey almost every type of archaeological and architectural monument, from Neolithic chambered cairns to WWII coastal batteries and everything in between, including castles, churches, croft houses and country houses.  However, the main focus of his work latterly was recording Scotland’s Pictish and other Early Medieval sculpture.  John has been a member of the Pictish Arts Society for more than 20 years and is the current PAS President.

To register for the talk and to receive the Zoom joining details, you must send an email to Ian at bhsaberfeldy@gmail.com.