Scottish independence – heritage and the nation state

Scotland votes today. As everyone realizes, whether it is yes or no, independence or union, the nation state and body politic in Britain have changed. And the changes have been coming for quite a while. Is this all about nationalism? There has been little reference in the reporting I’ve followed to the old components of…

a pilgrimage in search of deep time

Jedburgh, just off Dere Street, Scottish Borders. On the Berwickshire coast at Siccar Point James Hutton found an exposure of the sandstone, shales and greywacke, with the strata of the sedimentary rocks lying at an angle to each other – what is now called an unconformity. Another, inland at Inchbonny by Jedburgh, is now known…

chorography – media materialities

Gallery – [water pigment paper] Working on my text accompaniment to the guide to Paul Noble’s art work, on display currently at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, has had me reflecting again on just how we might describe an encounter, in this case with a world of the imagination, a curiously enigmatic cosmopolis. (As an archaeologist…