Rhynie, Aberdeenshire

Rhynie, Aberdeenshire
The Craw Stane with Tap o'Noth hillfort in the background (Photo courtesy of Cathy MacIver).

Friday 28 September 2012

Lectures and public talks

Gordon and I have been invited to speak at a number of venues in Scotland and further afield about the site.  We'll keep people posted about events.  The next talk is held in Chester as part of the Chester Archaeological Society's lecture series where Meggen will present the story so far (7.30 pm in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester - admission £4). 
We've also had an update on our mysterious yellow substand found in the outer ditch destruction layer - we thought it might be pigment, but Ewan believes it may be some sort of glass ...  the microscopes are out and looking deeper!

Wednesday 12 September 2012

Speaking at the Sachsensymposium

It's been a busy summer! We've both managed to have a bit of a break over the past few months, but we've also been digging (check out the SERF project blog http://serf-dig.blogspot.co.uk/ to see another great Scottish excavation).

Last week, September 5th, Gordon and I were invited to speak at Durham University at the International Sachsensymposium.  We featured in a session outlining Pictish archaeology and how it is changing our ideas of 'core and periphery' in early medieval Europe.  The paper - and the site! - was well received and even people that aren't obsessed with the Picts were amazed at the archaeology. 

There's been other work going on as well.  We are finishing up the Data Structure Report and initial analysis of results.  Our environmental samples have been processed by Oskar and Gordon will soon be selecting candidates for radiocarbon dating. 

We'll try to keep posting over the non-digging months to let everyone know about upcoming lectures on the site, new analysis and results from specialist reports. 

Signing off from a drizzly Chester! Dr M.