This year’s annual photography competition has been launched and organiser Sue Bryson is urging all ACFA members to get involved. Got any interesting photos from the recent Tiree trip or planning a visit to an archaeological site over the summer? Remember to pack you camera and keep the competition in mind. Full details can be found in the Members’ Area.
Category: News
SCHARP Conference
Volunteers who took an interest in the Scotland’s Coastal Heritage at Risk Project are being invited to attend a conference in St Andrews to showcase the range and quality of work that volunteers have undertaken across Scotland as part of the project. The conference is to be held on weekend of the 18th and 19th of June and is also intended as an opportunity for volunteers to meet and learn about the work that has been carried out. Full details of the conference can be found here .
Crannogs
Langbank Crannogs Survey
Weather finally being favourable the second trip planned to survey and check on the condition of crannogs in the Clyde went ahead last week.
Acfa had been approached late last autumn by Scotland’s Coastal at Heritage at Risk Project (SCHARP) with a request to take a look at how erosion was affecting crannogs along the shores of the Clyde. A group led by Ian Marshall investigated the well-known site of Dumbuck in November but bad weather had delayed a visit to the Langbank crannogs on the south side of the river.
After lunch in the nearby Wheelhouse, and at low tide two groups set off, again under Ian Marshall’s direction, to survey the sites of Langbank East and West. It was a bright clear afternoon and the condition of the sites were soon updated for the SCHARP database and website. Along the way a relic of the Whysman Festival from 2012, celebrating the life and work of the late Greenock artist George Wyllie, was discovered. One of a series referencing George’s trademark question marks installed along the Clyde by Alec Galloway, the deteriorating artwork was left to take its place amongst the archaeology of the river.
Online Courses to Add to Your Skill Set
Two new free online courses are starting on February 1st of interest to archaeologists, one, Antiquities Trafficking and Art Crime, draws from archaeology, criminology, art history and law covering cutting-edge research into art’s seedy underworld. The other, Shipwrecks and Submerged Worlds: Maritime Archaeology, will teach how maritime archaeology investigates our changing relationship with the oceans and seas, from 2.5m years ago until today.
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/shipwrecks
Links to both courses can also be found in the Events section at the top right of the home page.