Sheridan (eds) Sheridan and Hunter ANCIENT ANCIENT ANCIENT LIVES Ancient Lives provides new perspectives on object, people and place in early Scotland and beyond. The 19 papers cover topics ranging from the Neolithic to the Medieval period, and from modern museum practice to ancient craft skills. The material culture of ancient lives is centre stage – how it was created and used, how it was rediscovered and thought about, and how it is displayed. Dedicated to Professor David V Clarke, former Keeper of Archaeology in National Museums Scotland, on his 70th birthday, the book comprises three sections which reflect some of his many interests. “Presenting the past” offers perspectives on current museum LIVES practice, especially in relation to archaeological displays. “Ancient lives and multiple lives” looks at antiquarian approaches to the Scottish past and the work of a Scottish antiquary abroad, while “Pieces of the past” offers a series of authoritative case-studies on Scottish artefacts, as well as papers on the iconic site of Skara Brae and on the impact of the Roman world on Scotland. With subjects ranging from Gordon Childe to the Govan Stones ANCIENT LIVES and from gaming pieces to Grooved Ware, this scholarly and OBJECT, PEOPLE AND PLACE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. accessible volume provides a show-case of new information and new perspectives on material culture linked, but not limited to, Scotland. ESSAYS FOR DAVID V CLARKE ON HIS 70TH BIRTHDAY Sidestone edited by ISidestoneSBN 978-90-8890-375-5 Press ISBN: 978-90-8890-375-5 Fraser Hunter and Alison Sheridan 9 789088 903755 This is an Open Access publication. Visit our website for more OA publication, to read any of our books for free online, or to buy them in print or PDF. www.sidestone.com Check out some of our latest publications: ANCIENT LIVES Sidestone Press ANCIENT LIVES OBJECT, PEOPLE AND PLACE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. ESSAYS FOR DAVID V CLARKE ON HIS 70TH BIRTHDAY edited by Fraser Hunter and Alison Sheridan © 2016 individual authors Published by Sidestone Press, Leiden www.sidestone.com ISBN 978-90-8890-375-5 Lay-out & cover design: Sidestone Press Cover picture: House 1: Skara Brae, by Philip Hughes © and reproduced by courtesy of Philip Hughes Also available as: e-book (PDF): ISBN 978-90-8890-376-2 Dr David V Clarke in March 2011, just before his retirement as Keeper of the Department of Archaeology, National Museums Scotland (and its predecessor institutions), 1981-2011. Photograph by Doug Simpson Contents Contributors 9 Introduction: ‘If I can put it like that…’ 15 Alison Sheridan and Fraser Hunter SECTION 1 – PRESENTING THE PAST 29 Museums and their collections 31 Mark Jones Presenting someone else’s past: the Caithness Broch Centre 59 Andrew Heald Reading Govan Old: interpretative challenges and aspirations 73 Stephen T Driscoll SECTION 2 – ANCIENT LIVES AND MULTIPLE LIVES 93 Robert Innes Shearer: a lost antiquary from Caithness 95 Stratford Halliday ‘Thanks to you the best has been made of a bad job’: Vere Gordon 111 Childe and the Bronze Age cairn at Ri Cruin, Kilmartin, Argyll & Bute Trevor Cowie Mary Boyle (1881-1974): the Abbé Breuil’s faithful fellow-worker 127 Alan Saville Evidence and artefact: utility for protohistory and archaeology in 151 Thomas the Rhymer legends Hugh Cheape Expiscation! Disentangling the later biography of the St Andrews 165 Sarcophagus Sally M Foster SECTION 3 – PIECES OF THE PAST 187 Scottish Neolithic pottery in 2016: the big picture and some details 189 of the narrative Alison Sheridan Skara Brae life studies: overlaying the embedded images 213 Alexandra Shepherd The earlier prehistoric collections from the Culbin Sands, northern 233 Scotland: the construction of a narrative Richard Bradley, Aaron Watson and Ronnie Scott The provision of amulets and heirlooms in Early Bronze Age 245 children’s burials in Scotland Dawn McLaren On the edge: Roman law on the frontier 263 David J Breeze The Colour Purple: lithomarge artefacts in northern Britain 273 Martin Goldberg ‘Coal money’ from Portpatrick (south-west Scotland): reconstructing 281 an Early Medieval craft centre from antiquarian finds Fraser Hunter Silver handpins from the West Country to Scotland: perplexing 303 portable antiquities Susan Youngs Gleaming eyes and the elaboration of Anglo-Saxon sculpture 317 Alice Blackwell Combs and comb production in the Western Isles during the Norse 331 period Niall Sharples and Ian Dennis Playing the dark side: a look at some chess and other playing pieces 359 of jet and jet-like materials from Britain Mark A Hall Contributors Alice Blackwell Alice Blackwell is Glenmorangie Research Fellow at National Museums Scotland and has worked on the Glenmorangie Research Project, supported through a partnership with The Glenmorangie Company, since its inception in 2008. Before that she studied at University of Leeds and University of Glasgow. [email protected] Richard Bradley Richard Bradley is Emeritus Professor in Archaeology at Reading University and has undertaken excavations at Scottish monuments since 1994. [email protected] David Breeze David Breeze was formerly Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Historic Scotland. His primary research interests are the Roman army and Roman frontiers, on which he has written several books. [email protected] Hugh Cheape Professor Hugh Cheape devised and has been teaching a postgraduate programme, MSc Cultar Dùthchasach agus Eachdraidh na Gàidhealtachd (‘Material Culture & Gàidhealtachd History’), at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig since 2005. He was awarded a Research Chair in the University of the Highlands and Islands in June 2009. The MSc has grown out of his curatorial and ethnological work during a career in the National Museums of Scotland between 1974 and 2007 where latterly he was a Principal Curator in the Department of Scotland and Europe. He has published in the subject fields of ethnology and musicology, including studies in Scottish agricultural history, vernacular architecture, piping, tartans and dye analysis, pottery, charms and amulets, and talismanic belief. [email protected] Trevor Cowie Trevor Cowie is a Senior Curator in the Early Prehistory section of the Department of Scottish History & Archaeology, National Museums Scotland, with special responsibility for the Bronze Age collections. A graduate of the Department of Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, he worked as a field archaeologist for several years before joining the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in 1980. He was a member of the curatorial team responsible for the Symbols of Power at the Time of Stonehenge exhibition in 1985 and co-author of the accompanying contributors 9 book, and in the 1990s a member of the curatorial team involved in creating the Early People gallery in the Museum of Scotland. He is a long-standing member of the Bronze Age Studies Group and the Bronze Age Forum. In his spare time he is Chairman of Peeblesshire Archaeological Society. [email protected] Ian Dennis Ian Dennis BA is an archaeologist, professional archaeological illustrator and graphic designer with over 25 years of experience. Ian is employed as a lecturer in archaeological visualisation and illustration at Cardiff University and is an active member of EXARC. Ian’s work comprises artefact illustration (traditional and digital), production of maps and plans, artistic reconstructions using pen and ink, pencil and watercolours, book typesetting, book design and preparing books and articles for publication. Ian is also involved in experimental and experiential archaeology, including practical research concerning ancient artefact technologies. [email protected] Stephen T Driscoll Professor Driscoll has held a personal Chair in Historical Archaeology at the University of Glasgow since 2005. His academic interests are focused on the origins and growth of Scotland from the Early Middle Ages to the Modern Era. He is currently the Director of the Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies. For the past 10 years he has co-directed the SERF (Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot) project excavation around Forteviot, Perthshire. For over 20 years he has been involved with Govan Old and recently became responsible for the sculpture and church building as a Govan Heritage Trustee. [email protected] Sally Foster Dr Sally Foster has been a lecturer in Heritage and Conservation at the University of Stirling since 2014. She previously worked for the RCAHMS, Historic Scotland, the University of Glasgow and the University of Aberdeen. While at Historic Scotland she initiated a partnership with D V Clarke and his NMS colleagues on the Hilton of Cadboll project. Her current main research interests are Early Medieval Scotland in its wider context, especially the church, antiquarianism, historiography and later uses of Early Medieval material culture. [email protected] Martin Goldberg Martin Goldberg began working as an archaeologist while completing his degree in Religious Studies and History at SUNY Albany, New York and quickly decided archaeology was where his heart lay. He spent most of the next decade digging, 10 ancient lives first in the USA, and on return to the UK balanced part-time PhD research and teaching at the University of Glasgow with archaeological projects from Shetland to Cornwall and the Western Isles to Norfolk. He lectured in the Department of Celtic and Gaelic in Glasgow (2007-8) before becoming curator of the Early Historic and Viking collections at National Museums Scotland. David promptly encouraged Martin to complete his PhD on Vernacular Religion in Roman Britain (2009). Martin is still striving to meet David’s exacting standards of what a jack- of-all-trades curator should be. [email protected] Mark Hall Mark A Hall is an archaeologist and museum curator based at Perth Museum & Art Gallery, Perth & Kinross, Scotland and currently on secondment in the Western Isles of Scotland working on the Udal Project. He has a long-standing research interest in the archaeology of board games and play, the cult of saints, Pictish sculpture, cultural biography and cinematic re-imaginings of the past.