Stone Circle...

... outside Aberfeldy, Scotland.

The Croft Moraig stone circle lays west of Aberfeldy, about 6 km along the road that takes you to Loch Tae and the Scottish Crannog Centre.

'Sacred Oak' : The 'old' oaks around the circle were in fact planted by the Victorians!

'Stone Circle' : view from the southern edge of the circle, looking roughly south west.

'Within the Circle' : Kelly visits the stones (giving a measure of scale).

Another description of Croft Moraig can be found on the Megalithic Portal web site.

History, Memory - and Statues

I've been away from the News for a good while.
There was the frantic scramble to get repairs to my trailer completed, all the packing and loading for the Newfoundland trip to L'Anse aux Meadows. Departing for that the end of the first week in July. Home from that a mere two days and off to Scotland for the project work here. (It's the morning of my last day at SSW.)
So basically well over 7 weeks since I've had any time, often actually even no ability, to check the News. So all realize my perspective is extremely limited to isolated flashes.

I had caught pieces of the insanity taking place in the United States of America right now, triggered around a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville VA.


Now, I follow Jim Wright at Stonekettle Station.
His latest piece, posted up yesterday (Saturday August 2017) bears reading :
'No Man's Land'





 I submitted the following as a comment to Jim's (insightful as always) piece:

I am taking part in an artist's workshop, mix of Scots / Canadians / Americans, the topic of sculpture as memorials came up.
I am personally deeply involved with history (admittedly pre-Medieval primarily), so often consider the role of object within culture. From this standpoint, do consider any object does remain a reflection of the time and setting which it was created in. * Meaning * may shift considerably through time. (The Great Pyramid was constructed with considerable slave labour as well. Should it be torn down because of this?)

One of the Americans at the table suggested that instead of taking down historic monuments, these should be *non destructively* modified to reflect a modern perception of those historic events.
In this way, history is retained, but *meaning* may be modified.

Given Jim's clarion call to action, this suggestion may easily be seen as feeble appeasement. Obviously, the type of narrow focus, distortion of proven fact and willful ignorance being demonstrated can not be easily combated by a 'gentle' approach.
So clearly, as so many commenters have stated, this has little to actually do with removing a statue.

I do caution all to consider the material aspect of the Future. We North Americans are far too quick to destroy and cart off to rubble the marks of our past. Without some marks of our actions, both the good - and the very bad, how are coming generations to have any perspective framework to allow themselves to make their own decisions?

As much as delving into political commentary is something I do actually attempt to keep limited on this series, readers may see how the above actually dove tails nicely on to recent postings here :  Art at SSW - #1 Object & Age / # 2 Object & Context

the Galloway Hord

At the National Museum of Scotland - Edenburgh :

Lower groupping of arm 'rings'

Upper grouping of ingots and worked strips

Revealed in the two cases above :
- Several of the ingots were clearly made in the same top poured mould. There was a distinctive knob feature seen, from a deeper cut to one end of the mould.
- The arm rings were all considerably thicker in cross section than I previously thought. (Exact L x W x H x weight is rarely indicated.)
- Seeing the ingots and the arm rings side by side certainly suggested that the arm rings were made by simply hammering flat the ingots. The sizes of the bracelets was very uniform, and the volume of metal from ingot into ring was very consistent.
- You also can see that all of the 'rings' are in fact flattened strips - not formed into C shapes at all.
This might easily have been done to keep the package of silver small for burial. That many of the bracelets have been deliberately turned over and squished flat on one or both does suggest that all the silver, worked or ingot, was only intended as silver weight.

Pair of fine silver hinged strap orniments - considered very unusual for VA finds

These large glass pieces were described as 'beads'
The large flattened disks were roughly 3 - 4 cm in diameter, with hole diameters approaching 1 cm.
The largest, to the lower right, was almost double even that mass of glass.
Taken together, this huge size suggests to me that these might easily have been intended as spindle whorls.

Not everything from the Hord was on display. Especially most of the more 'unusual' objects (likely still under preservation work).
For more images - go to the Galloway Hord at the NMS

We have to raise £1.98 million to save the Hoard, and in addition we need  to raise additional funds to properly conserve, research and prepare the Galloway Hoard for display, (NMS web site)

 The Hoard was uncovered by a single individual, so it would fall under Scottish 'Treasure Trove' law. It appears that although technically all  such finds revert 'ownership' to the Scottish Crown, in practice, an independant pannel determines a 'market value', which museums normally pay to the original finder.


Images :
The National Museum of Scotland allows for full photography in all its galleries.
All the images above were taken by myself on August 9, 2017
Although captured as photographs, the copyright to the text panels really rests with the NMS.

Art at SSW 2 - Object & Context

'As the Object is removed from its original CONTEXT

It's Meaning is now OBSCURED'

Working so much with historic objects, this is a concept that I deal with constantly.
( Long term readers may have seen the (old!) article 'Aunt Marthas and Damthings'. )

- Central to the grouping above  is an unknown object, seemingly exposed via excavation.
- To the right top is a 'well known' ancient object (interpretation by Graham Taylor).
- On the lower right is an unknown object, a bronze or brass disk bearing a cross like mark on one side.

Removed from their original contexts, what can we truthfully say about any of these?
Are ALL of these religious symbols?
- Most would certainly ascribe symbolic meanings to the figure, with its exagerated female characteristics. But just what did the original maker intend?
- The disk becomes more problematic. A Western / Christian perspective might easily attribute symbolic meaning. But is that the perspective of the viewer - rather than the maker?
- The partially exposed object? Can you easily assign deeper meaning (or exclude the possibility)?


For me personally, 'Art' is about Communication.
No matter how grand or insightful your concept, if the intent is not communicated effectively to the viewer, your work fails. The exercise of creation may have value to you personally, but at best it remains self indulgent.