September is Scottish Archaeology Month and to celebrate we have made 3 of the lectures from our This Is Archaeology series FREE to access as they all have a Scottish connection.
The videos are all available via the CBA's YouTube channel and will be free to access until the end of October 2023.
View the full playlist here or click on the links below to select a presentation.
Usit Unearthed - Bringing communities and archaeological landscapes together through augmented reality
Join Dr Rebecca Rennell and discover the The Uist Virtual Archaeology Project (UVAP). This project was established in 2020 as a pilot project with the aim of demonstrating the viability of place-based digital approaches to archaeological visitor interpretation in the Hebrides. The challenge was to find methods for engaging the local communities and the wider public in well-researched but hidden archaeological heritage that sits within fragile and sensitive landscapes. Further challenges were established by the desire to work with local communities, to embed Gaelic in the research and presentation of archaeological material and to create outputs that support sustainable tourism with both economic and social benefits for the islands.
In this talk, the UVAP team reflect on some of the challenges and opportunities associated with developing location-based augmented reality experiences for archaeological sites on the Hebridean islands of North and South Uist. They discuss the value of working with our local communities to coproduce material and explain why this has been so vital for creating engaging experiences that successfully connect people with Uist’s archaeological landscapes.
The Uist Virtual Archaeology Project won the Outstanding Achievement Award, Innovation Award and Public Dissemination or Presentation Award at the 2022 Archaeological Achievement Awards.
The Scottish Crannog Centre 2018-2022
Join Rachel Backshall and Rich Hiden of the Scottish Crannog Centre and hear the story of an organisation going through transition facing Covid pandemic-devastating fires, frogs and locusts.
Dead Isle: Endangered Heritage Ecologies
Join Lesley McFadyen to hear about a new project that brings together archaeology, art and ecology. It focused on why these connections are important, and why they are of value to local communities.
In 1871 Alfred Nobel started building a dynamite factory on the Ardeer Peninsula in North Ayrshire, Scotland, for the manufacture of black powder, safety fuse, and detonators. From the 1940s onwards, munitionettes worked there and they graffitied lyrics on the walls of their workspace, of old and new songs, whilst they were cutting cordite paste. The sand mounds that surround the huts now support nesting songbirds. Alex Boyd, Iain Hamlin and Lesley McFadyen are negotiating new ways in which to deal with a situation where the built environment is decaying whilst ecological habitats thrive, and yet there is the constant possibility of further development that would put all of this at risk. How do we value the human and the non-human in such a landscape? How are we creating a new kind of account of memory and place?
You can find out more about the This Is Archaeology lecture series and future talks by clicking the button below.
This Is Archaeology lectures are free to CBA members and £5 for non-members. Post-event, recordings are made available to members via the members' homepage.
Scottish Archaeology Month is coordinated by Archaeology Scotland and you can find details of events happening across the country throughout September via the link below.
