Archaeology across the Border: Prehistoric Communities in the Tyne-Forth Region and beyond

Date: Saturday September 29th 2012, 10am-5pm
Location: The Royal Society of Edinburgh, George Street, Edinburgh

Abstract

In the last two years the Tyne-Forth Prehistory Forum has sought to stimulate new discussion and research into the prehistoric archaeology of Northeast England and Southeast Scotland. These meetings have largely dealt with the detail of how we carry out the archaeological investigation of prehistoric communities in the region – now we will discuss papers that (re)consider the narratives that archaeologists tell about these communities. What can we now say about the prehistoric communities living between the Forth and the Tyne – about their landscapes, dwellings, monuments, burial practices, and the things of their everyday lives? How were they interconnected with one another, and with communities elsewhere? We also aim to focus on the Tyne-Forth region in prehistory at a larger scale, and explore whether this region could even be characterised as such at various times. What were the major events, changes, trends in the prehistory of the region? Were these apparent across the region as a whole, or confined to particular landscapes?

In day conferences at Newcastle, Edinburgh and Berwick made possible by AHRC funding we have considered: the impact of the recent past and our archaeological practices and ideas on the prehistory we now work with; how other archaeologists work and cope with similarly artificial borders across Europe; how prehistoric communities were composed of human beings, things, materials, plants, animals, places and landscapes; how communities were connected with each other within the region; and the role of environment, climate and landscape in the development and experiences of prehistoric communities. In this final meeting of the AHRC-funded project ‘Investigating Prehistoric Social and Cultural Networks through the Tyne-Forth Prehistory Forum’ we will discuss interpretations of the prehistoric past that combine different forms of evidence and/or place the archaeology of the region in a wider context.

Papers

Kristian Pedersen (Edinburgh University)
The Mesolithic Between the Tyne and Forth in a European Perspective

Alison Sheridan (National Museums Scotland)
The Neolithic of the Tyne-Forth region

Jan Harding and Mark Lawson (Newcastle University)
Carving the way forward: understanding the orientations of Neolithic cup and ring radials and penannular motifs in Mid Argyll and Northern Nothumberland

Dana Millson (Durham University)
Cultural Interaction in Prehistory: The Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age on the Anglo-Scottish Border

Bob Will (GUARD Archaeology)
The view from above: prehistoric activity at Soutra Hill

Rachel Pope (University of Liverpool)
Kidlandlee (Northumberland) and Early-Middle Bronze Age settlement and land use in Scotland

Strat Halliday and Pete Topping
Settlement and subsistence during the later Bronze Age and Iron Age

Martin Goldberg (National Museums Scotland)
From Votadini to Bernicia: Tyne-Forth archaeology, history, myths and poetry

David Metcalfe (Performance Storyteller and Narrative Consultant)
Ancestors’ tales – retrieving memory from the landscape through oral storytelling

 

COMING SOON - Videos of the papers from Edinburgh