Monday 26 April, 17.30-19.00
Dr Hugo Anderson-Whymark (Senior Curator of Prehistory, National Museums of Scotland). Portable Art: Scotland’s Carved Stone Balls
About the talk: The Neolithic is renowned for its fine stone artefacts, such as axeheads and maceheads, many of which are manufactured using similar stoneworking techniques to rock art. Yet surprisingly few stone artefacts are decorated with pecked or incised designs. Carved stone balls, most commonly found in north east Scotland, are an exception, with examples carved into wide variety of novel forms and around 50 of the 525 or so known examples exhibiting pecked or incised surface decoration. This webinar focusses on the manufacture and decoration of these artefacts, with particular reference to chaîne opératoires that frequently highlight extended object biographies and episodes of reworking. Parallels and contrasts will be made with contemporary Neolithic rock art.
About Hugo: Dr Hugo Anderson-Whymark is a Senior Curator, responsible for Palaeolithic to Neolithic collections north of the Alps, in the department of Scottish History and Archaeology at National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh. He is also an Honorary Reader in Archaeology at the University of the Highlands and Islands.
Join us for this fascinating talk!
