Able Minds and Practiced Hands


Book Description

One hundred years on from J Romilly Allen and Joseph Anderson's 1903 landmark publication, The Early Christian Monuments of Scotland, twenty six essays explore the current state of knowledge of early medieval sculpture in Scotland. They demonstrate the unique value of this material in contributing to our understanding of the society and people that created it between 1000 to 1500 years ago. Today's approaches and techniques offer new insights, as well as great hope, for what might be learnt from future study of 'familiar' and new material alike. The essays exemplify the ever-diversifying, interdisciplinary approaches that are being taken to the study of early medieval sculpture. Key themes that emerge include: the interdependence of conservation, research and access; the need for a 21st-century inventory of the sculpture; the breadth and value of the wide range of the research tools that now exist; conservation issues, including the politics of how and where sculpture should be protected, and the pressing need to identify priorities for action; and, what is probably the most important development over the last 100 years, the increase in awareness of the range of values and significances that attaches to early medieval sculpture, including appreciation of context.




Alexander II


Book Description

By equal measure state-builder and political unifier and ruthless opportunist and bloody-handed aggressor, Alexander II has been praised or vilified by past historians but has rarely been viewed in the round. This book explores the king's successes and failures, offering a fresh assessment of his contribution to the making of Scotland as a nation. It lifts the focus from an introspective national history to look at the man and his kingdom in wider British and European history, examining his international relationships and offering the first detailed analysis of the efforts to work out a lasting diplomatic solution to Anglo-Scottish conflict over his inherited claims to the northern counties of England. More than just a political narrative, the book also seeks to illuminate aspects of the king's character and his relationships with those around him, especially his mother, his first wife Joan Plantagenet, and the great magnates, clerics and officials who served in his household and administration. The book illustrates the processes by which the mosaic of petty principalities and rival power-bases that covered the map of late 12th-century Scotland had become by the mid-13th century a unified state, hybrid in culture(s) and multilingual but acknowledging a common identity as Scots.




The Iron Age in Northern Britain


Book Description

The Iron Age in Northern Britain examines the archaeological evidence for earlier Iron Age communities from the southern Pennines to the Northern and Western Isles and the impact of Roman expansion on local populations, through to the emergence of historically recorded communities in the post-Roman period. The text has been comprehensively revised and expanded to include new discoveries and to take account of advanced techniques, with many new and updated illustrations. The volume presents a comprehensive picture of the ‘long Iron Age’, allowing readers to appreciate how perceptions of Iron Age societies have changed significantly in recent years. New material in this second edition also addresses the key issues of social reconstruction, gender, and identity, as well as assessing the impact of developer-funded archaeology on the discipline. Drawing on recent excavation and research and interpreting evidence from key studies across Scotland and northern England, The Iron Age in Northern Britain continues to be an accessible and authoritative study of later prehistory in the region.




The Roundhouses, Brochs and Wheelhouses of Atlantic Scotland, C. 700 BC-AD 500


Book Description

The Scottish broch ¿ symbolized by the lonely tower on Mousa island in Shetland ¿ has, since the early years of the 18th century, excited the curiosity of archaeologists, antiquaries, and lay persons alike. The great piles of rubble, or the green mounds covering their massive ruins (dated c.700 BC ¿ AD 500), are everywhere to be seen in the western and northern islands and in the north-eastern counties of Caithness and Sutherland, often in upland places where there are few other signs of dynamic human habitation. Indeed, part of the fascination of the brochs is that these abundant signs of about 1200 years of human dynamic human energy and organization are concentrated in the maritime region of the far north and west of Scotland which, until the discovery of oil focused attention on the importance of the sea again, seemed remote in every sense from the centres of population of the modern UK. Most writers about brochs in the past have tended to rely for their conclusions on a relatively small number of well-known sites. Apart from the from the work of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland there has never been a systematic attempt to collate all the available data about brochs everywhere, and the finds made in them. This is one of the tasks the author set himself in 1961, soon after arriving in Scotland, and this volume is the first half of the result. This thorough study includes 329 illustrations, plans, photographs and maps, as well as an Index of site names and an Appendix of over 400 Iron Age artefacts drawn by author.




Wales and the Britons, 350-1064


Book Description

The most detailed history of the Welsh from Late-Roman Britain to the eve of the Norman Conquest. Integrates the history of religion, language, and literature with the history of events.




CBA Research Report


Book Description










An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire


Book Description

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales has a leading national role in developing and promoting understanding of the archaeological, built and maritime heritage of Wales, as the originator, curator and supplier of authoritative information for individual, corporate and governmental decision makers, researchers, and the general public.