the contemporary archaeology of prehistory
It is not often I get angry, but a recent encounter with a standing stone has really annoyed – and shocked me. I am pretty used to prehistory being badly treated, and indeed a whole chapter of my forthcoming book (have I mentioned this before?) deals with 20th and 21st century biographies of megaliths that … Continue reading Barn Storm
In the name of relaxation, would you like a small cup-and-ring marked stone to be gently rubbed back and forth against your jowls like this gentleman? Now you can thanks to strong smelling toiletry-mungers Lush. Because at many of their branches you can get the Highland Spa experience. Who could walk past the enticing display … Continue reading Lush prehistory
One of the most remarkable episodes in British archaeology was played out in the summer of 1937 in Clydebank, near Glasgow. For a short while, the Druid Temple, or Knappers, was the hottest ticket in town and prehistory was sexy, thanks to the charismatic Ludovic MacLellan Mann. This site, long invisible, and in the shadow … Continue reading For the delectation of posterity
I grew up in a town called Larkhall in South Lanarkshire, not far from Glasgow. It would be fair to say that this is a place that has a negative reputation at least in west central Scotland, and I was very aware of this when I was growing up. However the character of the town … Continue reading Close to home
The most (in)famous example of heavy metal and prehistory harmonising is surely the undersized Stone’enge that is slowly lowered into the midst of guitars and spandex in the 1984 mock-rock-doc This is Spinal Tap. Confusion over inches and feet is an appropriate mistake to make for a monument that has so often in the past … Continue reading Blood incantation
Urban prehistory can still surprise me. On a recent trip to Belfast, I hoped that I might stumble upon something that would be blog post worthy, and I thought I had hit urban prehistory gold when I got off the train at the nearby city of Bangor and saw a standing stone in the station … Continue reading Passage grave art … in a passage
What else would we be going to look at on a suburban street called Helleristningen, other than what this Norwegian word means: the rock carving. Situated in an area of housing in Åskollen, south of Drammen on the west side of Oslo Fjord, this street winds its way past a caged outcrop, which has carved … Continue reading Do hunter gatherers dream of electric elk?
Me, tracing my fingers in and out of the coarse surface of cupmarks on a stone in the sun, with red paint marks on the rock beside me. Again. Not in Faifley, but Oslo. To be precise this happened on a walk with fellow archaeologist Ingrid Mainland in Ekebergparken, on the south side of the … Continue reading Lot 172
“Why does that Wetherspoons have a drawing of a standing stone outside?” I asked incredulously a few months back during a visit to the soon-to-be levelled down (funded by levelling up money) Cumbernauld Antonine shopping centre. Soon followed by, “…and it is called The Carrick Stone!”. Little more encouragement was needed to go inside to, … Continue reading The ‘Spoons stone
What if standing stones were not erected in the Neolithic period as a focal point for ceremony and ritual, but rather the stones themselves were the object of worship? This startling thought (not an original one I’m sure) came to me during a Neolithic Studies Group field visit to Yorkshire in May 2024. In particular … Continue reading Stone cult
