Prehistoric rock art in Scotland: archaeology, meaning and engagement

This booklet aims to widen understanding and appreciation of prehistoric rock carvings in Scotland. Rock art forms some of the most prolific, fascinating, and inspiring fragments of Scotland’s ancient past. It captures a wealth of information about the people who created it, the world they lived in, and the beliefs they held in order to make sense of that world. There is still much to learn about Scotland’s rock art, but investigations over the last two decades have helped us understand more about its significance to people in the past and its value to us today. In the following pages, we provide an overview of rock art in Scotland, its connections with other parts of Britain and Europe, and its treatment today. In the first two sections (About Rock Art and Rock Art and Meaning), we emphasise the uniqueness of Scotland’s rock art and explore the key questions surrounding it: What is it? Where is it? How old is it? Who made it? And, above all, what does it mean? In the third section (Rock Art Today), we highlight the importance of recording, preserving and celebrating the rock art that survives today to ensure future understanding, community engagement, and cultural identity. There is much more to say about rock art than we can possibly fit into this booklet and, in the final section, we offer suggestions for where to find out more and where to visit rock art in the landscape, in museums, and online

A multiscalar methodology for holistic analysis of prehistoric rock carvings in Scotland

Prehistoric rock carvings are one of Scotland’s most enigmatic and poorly understood monument types. This article discusses the pioneering approach used by Scotland’s Rock Art Project to enhance understanding of the abstract motifs through multiscalar computational analyses of a large dataset co-produced with community teams. The approach can be applied to suitable rock art datasets from other parts of the world and has international relevance for rock art reserach. Our analysis incorporates data from across Scotland in order to investigate inter-regional differences and similarities in the nature and contexts of the carvings. Innovative application of complementary analytical methods identified subtle regional variations in the character of the rock art and motif types. This variability suggest an understanding of the rock art tradition that was widely shared but locally adapted, and reflects connections and knowledge exchange between specific regions

The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe

From around 2750 to 2500 bc, Bell Beaker pottery became widespread across western and central Europe, before it disappeared between 2200 and 1800 bc. The forces that propelled its expansion are a matter of long-standing debate, and there is support for both cultural diffusion and migration having a role in this process. Here we present genome-wide data from 400 Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age Europeans, including 226 individuals associated with Beaker-complex artefacts. We detected limited genetic affinity between Beaker-complex-associated individuals from Iberia and central Europe, and thus exclude migration as an important mechanism of spread between these two regions. However, migration had a key role in the further dissemination of the Beaker complex. We document this phenomenon most clearly in Britain, where the spread of the Beaker complex introduced high levels of steppe-related ancestry and was associated with the replacement of approximately 90% of Britain’s gene pool within a few hundred years, continuing the east-to-west expansion that had brought steppe-related ancestry into central and northern Europe over the previous centuries

The Past, Present and Future of Rock Art Research in Scotland

There is considerable value then in examining Scotland’s prehistoric carvings from the perspective of landscapes, archaeology, discovery and research specific to this country, both for appreciating diversity within Scotland, and for informing studies of British and European rock art. The following account reviews the development of knowledge and understanding of Scotland’s rock art. It draws on multiple sources, including preliminary results from work by Scotland’s Rock Art Project (ScRAP), a five-year (2017-2021) Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded programme to enhance understanding, awareness and value of prehistoric rock art in Scotland through community co-production and research.2 First, we consider how knowledge has been constructed over the last 200 years. We then examine the state of rock art data today, and its implications for research. Finally, we discuss research trajectories, highlighting how work in Scotland has contributed to current understanding, before concluding with some remarks on future directions and longer-term aspirations. Although relevant to the themes discussed in this paper, management and sustainability concerns are covered only briefly

Making finds matter: using charismatic objects, people power and digital technologies to build a better future for archaeological finds in Scotland

From enigmatic carved stone balls to the patched breeches of an eighteenth-century bog body, many archaeological finds from Scotland are, without doubt, fabulous. Through these objects and the practices they embody, we can imagine alternative ways of living and thinking, wonder at past peoples’ ingenuity and skill, and revisit significant moments in our own lives. Archaeological finds are also often fragile, scattered across diverse locations, and often difficult to access or find out about following their initial discovery. Only very few archaeological objects make it into museum displays where they can be widely enjoyed. In economically and socially challenging times, even these items can be hard to reach. Linking into wider moves to improve access to heritage collections in Scotland and across the UK, the Boundary Objects Project celebrated captivating archaeological objects from Scotland and the diverse sets of people involved in their discovery. Contemporary digital technologies and the good will, skills, and energy of a wide set of archaeological professionals, students and enthusiasts were harnessed in order to improve access to information to scattered digital records relating to archaeological objects and sites, to raise the prominence of these items in existing community-led heritage initiatives, and to engage diverse audiences in actively enjoying them. This paper summarises work on the Boundary Objects Project – a collaboration between the Universities of Reading and Manchester in partnership with Historic Environment Scotland (HES) and National Museums Scotland (NMS) – in the context of wider multi-stranded moves to build a better future for archaeological finds in and well beyond Scotland

Making finds matter: using charismatic objects, people power and digital technologies to build a better future for archaeological finds in Scotland

From enigmatic carved stone balls to the patched breeches of an 18th-century bog body, many archaeological finds from Scotland are, without doubt, fabulous. Through these objects and the practices they embody, we can imagine alternative ways of living and thinking, wonder at past peo-ple’s ingenuity and skill, and revisit significant moments in our own lives. Archaeological finds are also often fragile, scattered across diverse locations, and often difficult to access or find out about following their initial discovery. Only very few archaeological objects make it into museum displays where they can be widely enjoyed. In economically and socially challenging times, even these items can be hard to reach. Linking into wider moves to improve access to heritage collections in Scotland and across the UK, the Boundary Objects Project celebrated captivating archaeological objects from Scotland and the diverse sets of people involved in their discovery. Contemporary digital tech-nologies and the goodwill, skills and energy of a wide set of archaeological professionals, students and enthusiasts were harnessed in order to improve access to information to scattered digital re-cords relating to archaeological objects and sites, to raise the prominence of these items in existing community-led heritage initiatives, and to engage diverse audiences in actively enjoying them. This paper summarises work on the Boundary Objects Project – a collaboration between the universities of Reading and Manchester in partnership with Historic Environment Scotland (HES) and National Museums Scotland (NMS) – in the context of wider multi-stranded moves to build a better future for archaeological finds in and well beyond Scotland