New and Forthcoming Books

Conflict in the pre-industrial landscape

by Glenn Foard and Richard Morris

Warfare looms large in the history of every nation – every country has its Battle of Hastings or Waterloo – yet it is surprisingly difficult to identify battle sites in the landscape. Battlefield archaeology is one of the newest areas of archaeological investigation, originating in work at the Little Bighorn (USA) in 1984.

A Handbook

by Virginia Dellino-Musgrave

The Handbook aims to give easy access to a range of information about the marine historic environment. It provides a useful guide for all those involved in the marine environment, from commercial exploration companies and local authorities to the recreational diver. In recent years there has been increased awareness of both the potential and the fragility of the marine and maritime zones.

Excavation of a Liberated African Graveyard in Rupert’s Valley, St Helena

Andrew Pearson, Ben Jeffs, Annsofie Witkin & Helen MacQuarrie

Britain’s abolition of the slave trade in 1807 did not end the traffic of human beings across the Atlantic. Indeed, for many decades to come, hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans continued to be shipped into slavery. From 1840 to 1872 the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena played a pivotal role in Britain’s efforts to suppress the slave trade, and over this time it received over 25,000 ‘liberated Africans’, taken from slave ships by Royal Navy patrols. Conditions aboard the slavers were appalling, and many did not survive the journey. Rupert’s Valley therefore became a graveyard to many thousands of Africans – ‘a valley of dry bones’ in the words of a visiting missionary.

by Richard Fawcett and Allan Rutherford

Castles, both ruined and occupied, are amongst the most deeply evocative buildings in the Scottish landscape. This book considers the history of the conservation and restoration of a number of those buildings against the background of what the idea of the castle has meant to Scots over the centuries.

Archaeology and Development

RD Oram, PF Martin, CA McKean, T Neighbour

This survey gives an accessible and broad-ranging synthesis of the history and archaeology of Whithorn and the nearby Isle of Whithorn, and aims to inform conservation guidance for future development.

Situated at a southern tip of Galloway, in the old county of Wigtownshire, the historic burgh of Whithorn is one of the oldest Christian sites in the UK. The origins of the settlement date back to the mid-fifth century AD and the first monastery may have been founded in the sixth century. Traditionally the monastery is the burial place of St Ninian. By the tenth or eleventh century a town-like settlement had developed around the monastic site and in 1312–15 this was relocated to the line of what is now George Street. At around the same time the community was created a burgh of barony for the prior of Whithorn. Pilgrimage was a very profitable activity for the town and the nearby settlement of Isle of Whithorn, a port for pilgrims and goods.