September is Scottish Archaeology Month and this coming Saturday, 14 September, Aberdeen Art Gallery is hosting a special one-day event including a family-friendly mini-archaeological dig and a series of fascinating talks highlighting the archaeological research being carried out in the North East.
Staff from Aberdeen Archives, Gallery & Museums, Aberdeenshire Museums, the University of Aberdeen Collections, the Treasure Trove Unit, Mesolithic Deeside and Mid-Grampian Mesolithic will be on hand to talk to you and share some of the archaeological items in their care.
If you’ve ever wondered how objects found in the ground make their way into Scotland’s museums, staff from the Treasure Trove Unit will also be taking part. Based at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, the Treasure Trove Unit is the first port of call for new discoveries and finders. The Aberdeen collection benefited from the Treasure Trove process with the acquisition of a Pictish symbol stone which was found in the River Don near Dyce in 2018. Visitors to the Treasure Hub Museum Centre in Northfield can see it on display at the entrance.
One of the items that will be on display at Saturday’s event is a leather shoe sole dating to the medieval period, one of the finds from the Gallowgate Middle School excavation in 1991. A large late 12th / early 13th century pit was excavated which contained over 50 boots and shoes, belt fragments and leather trimmings from shoemaking suggesting waste from a cobbling area, which may have been part of a medieval ‘industrial zone’.
Scottish Archaeology Month event,
Saturday 14 September 11am-4pm (drop-in), Aberdeen Art Gallery, admission free.
Visit our website for full programme details www.aagm.co.uk
20-minute talks
11:30 – Kate Britton, Sarah Barakat, Will Mills (University of Aberdeen)
PALaEoScot: new approaches to Scotland’s oldest archaeology
In this talk, University of Aberdeen researchers will introduce you to the illusive Ice Age archaeology of Scotland. Explore the evidence for Scotland’s Palaeolithic people, the landscapes they encountered and the fearsome beasts they shared their world with.
12:30- Rebecca Crozier (University of Aberdeen)
Ritual Violence or Violent ritual? Disentangling death narratives in the Orcadian Neolithic
This talk will present new evidence for violent, and fatal, interactions in the Orcadian Neolithic. But is this connected to raw, interpersonal aggression, or are we seeing something more darkly ritualised?
13:30- Ali Cameron (Cameron Archaeology)
The Book of Deer
This pocket gospel, with eighty-six folios and seven full-page illustrations was manufactured about 850-1000. There are seven addenda written into the manuscript, in the earliest evidence of Scots Gaelic, by different monks. An archaeological project started in 2017 set out to discover the site of the Monastery where these Gaelic notes were added to the book. This talk will outline this project and discuss what was found.
14:30- Antony Lee (Treasure Trove)
Treasure Trove in Scotland
A fascinating run though the Scottish Treasure Trove system for reporting archaeological finds and an update on recent local finds from Aberdeenshire.
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