The Kincardine Churchyard Stone in the Archives
In addition to archaeological and ethnographic work, this season I am spending considerable time in various archives across Scotland. The purpose of this work is to locate moments at which Pictishness is defined and refined historically--and to analyze these moments carefully: Why did people care about Pictishness at a given time, or within a given project/event? To what was Pictishness being likened or with what was it being contrasted? What materials (artifacts, images, languages, etc.) were mobilized as evidence of Pictishness? While it is always exciting to work on an excavation or to carry out ethnographic interviews, archival research may be my personal favorite component of SLIPP's methodology. The archives often offer a view of social interactions unfolding across several years, available to be paged through by an interested researcher in a few hours! Over the past few weeks, I was fortunate to be able to spend some time in the National Records of Scotland , where I ...