Here is another session from the CHAT conference for your viewing pleasure. Ultima Thule – St Kilda and Pabbay. Two remote landscapes in the Outer Hebrides, their archaeology and history. https://youtu.be/MEPEn3_NzKM George Geddes Historic Environment Scotland. St Kilda is perhaps one of Europe’s most famous remote cultural landscapes. While a narrative of romance and mythology became dominant from the 1950s (and arguably very much earlier), the results of a recent archaeological survey suggest that the islands were intensively exploited for their rich seabird resources. Far from presenting an opportunity for the discovery of rare or lost ancient sites, St Kilda’s landscape has been continually remoulded, and the present density of structures is incomparable in other rural settings. By contrast, the island of Pabbay is almost invisible in literature and media. Once the larger part of a medieval rental with St Kilda, it is equally rich in archaeological sites, including Bronze Age cairns, a 17 broch, a medieval centre, numerous houses and a rather fine 16th century church. The effects of a huge sandstorm in the 17th century left the once rich farmland bereft. By the 1830s Pabbay was seen as another potential sheep farm and its population of 300 were moved, many finding […]
January 13, 2017
Another CHAT session, the my colleague Ben filmed for your viewing pleasure. Rurbanities: Recording Rural Urbanities https://youtu.be/QVJ_5B1TYC4 Chiara Ronchini, Scotland’s Urban Past, Historic Environment Scotland. This paper will explore community‐led archaeology in transitional and interstitial spaces in urban areas –rurbanities(1). Terms with negative connotations, such as ‘residual’, ‘marginalised’ and ‘in‐between‐ the‐buildings’, are often used to define rurbanities, implying that these areas are uninspiring, left‐over spaces within the urban fabric. On the contrary, rurbanities are very fertile ground, and have been chosen for their heritage significance, reclaimed and re‐ interpreted by local communities who have a connection with these places. Within the framework of Scotland’s Urban Past (SUP), this paper will illustrate case studies of community groups, who are leading on projects discovering, recording and celebrating the heritage of rurbanities around Scotland’s towns and cities. Groups in Edinburgh, Livingston and Dundee are investigating the blueprint of urban areas, focusing on the heritage between the buildings to record and tell the story of the places – secret gardens, skateparks and re‐ruralised areas – that matter to them. In line with the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape, the notion of urban areas as a living organism made of tangible and intangible elements, and a complex […]
January 6, 2017
Back in October my colleague Ben Lewis went to the CHAT (Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory) conference on the main island of the Orkneys and filmed the conference. Here are some of those videos from the first session: Semi‐Rural https://youtu.be/qMQU7Lk5I5Y Paul Graves‐Brown University College London When we bought our house in Llwynhendy, Llanelli, the […]
March 1, 2017
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