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Books : reviews

Andrew Meirion Jones.
Archaeological Theory and Scientific Practice.
CUP. 2002

Andrew Meirion Jones, Davina Freedman, Blaze O'Connor, Hugo Lamdin-Whymark, Richard Tipping, Aaron Watson.
An Animate Landscape: rock art and the prehistory of Kilmartin, Argyll, Scotland.
Windgather Press. 2011

The Kilmartin landscape in western Scotland is widely regarded as Scotland's richest prehistoric landscape. It contains a number of barrow cemeteries, stone alignments, stone circles and a henge. With over 250 individual rock art sites, it also has the greatest concentration of prehistoric rock art in the British Isles and some of the most impressive rock art sites. An Animate Landscape contains the results of a major research project that included excavations of two sites, Torbhlaren and Ormaig, and the analysis of radiocarbon dates to produce a more coherent chronological context, as well as taking a broader interpretative approach to the landscape. The book argues that the rock art is an active part of the process of socialising the landscape, in which the landscape became more organised from the Late Neolithic onwards, and that this organised landscape relates to broader cosmological concerns. The book is richly illustrated with colour drawings and photographs done by a series of artists to produce a unique visual record of the rock art and its place in the landscape, alongside more traditional archaeological enquiry.

Andrew Meirion Jones, Joshua Pollard, Michael J. Allen, Julie Gardiner.
Image, Memory and Monumentality: archaeological engagements with the material world.
Oxbow. 2012

This volume is presented in honour of Richard Bradley.

The 30 commissioned papers provide a major contribution to prehistory and cover the range of themes addressed by Richard’s own extensive research. Leading scholars discuss key themes in prehistoric archaeology that have defined Richard’s career, such as monumentality, memory, rock art, landscape, material worlds and field practice. The scope is broad, covering both Britain and Europe, and while the focus is very much on the archaeology of later prehistory, papers also address the interconnection between prehistory and historic and contemporary archaeology.

The result is a rich and varied tribute to Richard’s energy and intellectual inspiration.