Issue No 12: Autumn 2014

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RRRoooccckkk AAArrrtttiiicccllleeesss Issue No.12: Autumn 2014 Dear All,

Happy Hallowe’en, one and all! It has been a spookily quiet summer for British rock art, with the exception of an excellent BRAG conference at Edinburgh in May (p7-9). No new discoveries to report, and no new projects beginning, but the rock art ‘spirit’ is still alive and well, with a session on recording technology planned for this year’s TAG conference in Manchester (see Dates for the Diary). We hope you enjoy the ghoulish feature on Medieval ‘rock art’ - designed to ward off evil spirits! On a more heavenly note, please keep your fingers crossed for the Rombalds Rock Art ‘Angels’, who will find out on November 3rd whether they have won a prestigious English Heritage award. Kate

October 2014 kesharpe@outlook.com

Contents:

• New British Discoveries: nothing new! ..................................................................................................... 1 • British Rock Art News: angels on the fells ................................................................................................ 1 • World Rock Art on the Web: international news and links ......................................................................... 2 • Medieval Rock Art: Warding off evil in Wales: Chris Caple........................................................................ 6 • BRAG 2014 Conference Report: Andy Curtis ......................................................................................... 7 • BRAG 2014 Fieldtrip: Ian Hawkins ......................................................................................................... 9 • Dates for the Diary ................................................................................................................................. 10 • Rock Art Reads ....................................................................................................................................... 11

NEW BRITISH DISCOVERIES Nothing to report this issue - surely we haven’t found it all? If you would like to share a find or you think you might have found something but would like an opinion from RA readers, then get in touch at the address above.

BRITISH ROCK ART NEWS ‘Heritage Angels’ in West Yorkshire In August 2014, the volunteer team from the Carved Stone Investigations: Rombalds Moor project were one of four projects shortlisted for the 2014 English Heritage Angel Award in the category of ‘The best rescue of a historic industrial building or site’. This is an annual award, sponsored by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and is presented to a group of volunteers who have done something extraordinary to protect our heritage. The winner will be announced in November. Read more at: www.english-heritage.org.uk/caring/angel-awards/vote2014/ The CSI team are up against the restoration of the gardens at Hagley Court, the restoration of All Soul's Church, Bolton and the restoration of Cullompton Waldrons in Devon. This is the first time that a landscape

project has reached the shortlist (the team were asked to submit ‘before and after’ photos of the stones!). The Award Ceremony will include short films made by each of the teams. Here is a link to the CSI film: http://ow.ly/CJrb2. This is a wonderful recognition of the fantastic work done by the CSI volunteers, and it is great to see rock art featuring amongst the usual list of standing buildings.

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WORLD ROCK ART on the WEB News from Egypt, Australia, and Africa, and Turkey.

The English Patient and the German artist. In 1933 a young German artist called Elisabeth Pauli created meticulous records of the vivid paintings made 6,000 years ago in a site known as the Cave of Swimmers in Gilf Kebir, an area in the Eastern Sahara on the border of Egypt and Libya. On the same expedition were Hungarian aviator and desert explorer László Almásy, the German ethnographer Leo Frobenius, and his colleague Hans Rhotert, who published the results of the expedition in 1952 in the volume Libysche Felsbilder. Almásy’s adventures provided the inspiration for ‘The English Patient’; a ‘replica’ cave is featured in the film.

Pauli’s watercolour sketches, and the striking photographs that show her at work belong to the Leo Frobenius Institute in Frankfurt am Mein. They featured in an exhibition this summer, ‘Leo Frobenius et L’Art Rupestre Africain’, at the Goethe Institute in Paris. The discovery of some of Pauli’s original materials in the Cave of Swimmers by a team of Egyptian and Italian archaeologists adds an extra dimension to the story.

Image: Roland Unger

On display are photographs of the tubes of watercolours Pauli used, and the drawing pins that held the paper on which she skilfully recorded what she saw. Dr Giulio Lucarini, from Cambridge University, one of the team who found the items said:

“These artists’ materials date from a time when many archaeologists were enthusiastic amateurs and intrepid travellers. Almásy, Frobenius and Rhotert drove across the sea of sand in open cab pickups. In an era before accurate colour photography, Pauli’s watercolours show us with a high degree of accuracy the startling beauty of the human and animal figures painted in the cave.”

Lucarini says that the Paris exhibition was the perfect opportunity to reveal photographs of his finds from the Almásy expedition to the public. “As items I see these artists’ materials as a kind of ‘wonderful rubbish’,” he said. “They are a symbol of early desert exploration and, if they have any role today, it is to help raise public consciousness about the fragility of the desert and about the capacity of humankind to create such magnificent pieces of art.”

Read more at:www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/06/2014/the-wonderful-rubbish-of-the-gilf-kebir-desert

Arnhem land A collaborative project involving chemists, archaeologists, anthropologists and the Northern Territory’s Jawoyn community aims to chemically analyse rock art to understand the materials used by the artists and how their work has changed over time. Associate Professor Stuart from the University of Technology, Sidney said “We are applying chemistry in an area that is a little less traditional. The chemistry tells you where materials were coming from, what types of materials they used and different practices at different times.”

The study differs from previous Indigenous site analyses as it accounts for how pigments change over time due to biological processes. “Traditionally such analyses have been more about elemental analysis, whereas we are looking at more sophisticated techniques to understand the whole of the paint and pigment structure and looking at chemical changes over time,” said Associate Professor Stuart. Synchrotron infrared microscopy will provide valuable data regarding the composition of the pigments already collected.

Read more at www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/09/2014/analysing-jawoyn-rock-art-in-arnhem-land See also: www.jawoyn.org/cultural-heritage/cultural-sites and: cfsites1.uts.edu.au/cfsrs/projects/detail.cfm?ProjectId=2014000074

Image from: www.jawoyn.org/cultural-heritage/cultural-sites

Boats in the desert Depictions of boats account for almost 25% of the petroglyphs in Egypt’s Central Eastern Desert. The images date to both the predynastic and later in the pharaonic and Greco-Roman periods. New research by Fransis Lankester has shown that the desert petroglyphs are distributed within those wadi systems offering route-ways into the region from the Nile valley. Indeed, the later pharaonic petroglyphs tend to be found along wadis leading to mines, quarries and routes to the Red Sea ports. Lankester suggests that the boat images may have been produced by naval teams in charge of transportation, with hieroglyphic inscriptions referring to the title of ‘ship’s captain’.

Read more in ‘Desert Boats: predynastic and pharaonic era rock-art in Egypt's Central Eastern Desert’. By F. Lankester, BAR International Series 2544.

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Digital photography from the British Museum African rock art project In April we reported on a new project to create an online database of African rock art. In her latest blog entry, museum curator Elizabeth looks at how digital photography is help to study, preserve, and enhance the rock art.

Read more at

http://blog.britishmuseum.org/2014/10/03/how-to-collect-a-cave-digital-photography-and-african-rock-art/ See the project page at britishmuseum.org/africanrockart.

The image shows a digitally manipulated copy of a rock art scene from Tadrat Acacus, Libya 2013,2034.685.

Peace process makes Kurdish art accessible Ten thousand year old rock art in south eastern Turkey has been made accessible for the first time in 54 years. A slow-moving peace process has ended active fighting in the area, facilitating the archaeologists’ return to the region of Norduz.

The carvings, which number in the thousands, depict mountain goats, wild deer, snakes, and humans. They are located in an alpine meadow among the mountains, 3,000 m above sea level.

A team from the Istanbul University Van Region History and Archaeology Center led by Erkan Konyar, in collaboration with the Van Museum Directorate, are now photographing and documenting the art.

Read more at http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/kurdish-peace-bid-allows-for-rediscovery-of-prehistorical-paintings-in-hakkari.aspx?PageID=238&NID=73321&NewsCatID=375

Mega-rock art, Inca-style! Thanks to Andy Curtis for passing on this image, taken by his colleague A. Russel Wills, of massive walls at the Sacsayhuaman fortress near Cusco. The Inca revered the llama, but could this arrangement of enormous blocks really be a subtle tribute as some have suggested?

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Medieval ‘Rock Art’: Protection from evil?

Were these inscriptions, found on slate floor tiles built into the threshold of a Welsh castle, intended to protect the inhabitants within? The 13 decorated slabs were uncovered during excavations at Nevern castle, Pembrokeshire. They are believed to date to between 1170 and 1190 when the castle was built. Dr Chris Caple from the University of Durham who led the excavation explained: "They were found in only one place in the castle and were probably intended to ward off evil". The site was excavated in a partnership project between Dr Caple, Dyfed Archaeological Trust, the National Park Authority, and Nevern Community Council which owns the site.

NCIS 1

The slates pictured were recovered from the threshold (features S16, S6) and the overlying rubble layer (S3), in the southern gateway to the site. The threshold was formed of slates pushed vertically into the ground, so forming hard wearing surface of the worn rounded upper edges of slates, which resembled the natural bedding of the local slate bedrock. Scratched onto these slates (and two others currently being conserved) were an array of images and symbols. Dr Caple argues that the complete absence of incised slate anywhere else on the site, the fact that the symbols were not clearly visible, the nature of the symbols, and their location, all indicate that the designs are apotropaic in nature - they were intended to ward off evil spirits. Some correspond with apotropaic symbols used in later and post medieval buildings. For example, letters, such as M or VV, invoke Christian characters such as the Virgin Mary to protect the structure and its occupants. In the late 12th century though, Nevern was at best only a partially literate society, so a wider range of simple shapes and image symbols (but no letters) are used. Many of these designs may have early medieval or prehistoric origin.

NCIS 4

NCIS 2

NCIS 4 reverse

NCIS 3

NCIS 5

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NCIS 6

Warrior images such as those on NCIS 4, NCIS 11 and NCIS 3? appear to be contemporary 12th century images. Stones with ‘functional’ designs such as Nine Men’s Morris boards (NCIS 1, NCIS 2) appear to have been reused, possibly with the earlier designs deliberately scratched or damaged to change their role / meaning. Some of the large stones (NCIS 2 and NCIS 3) were parts of larger circular stones with base projections – possibly early grave markers. The blackened surface on these larger stones again speak to an earlier use. Other stones such as NCIS 4 and NCIS 6 have been freshly scratched just before they were incorporated into the deposit. It appears likely therefore, that this threshold was made using older stones, probably from the early 12th century founding and occupation of castle (thus having powerful ancestral associations), together with freshly marked slates, to form a deposit which would protect the castle in a spiritual sense for the entry of evil forces. This may have been a powerful element of the castle defences in the mind of the defenders.

The threshold shown with some slabs in situ.

Details of the site of Nevern Castle are available from www.neverncastle.com

Further reading:

Caple, C. 2013 The Apotropaic Symbolled Threshold to Nevern Castle – Castell Nanhyfer, The Archaeological

Journal 169, 422-452.

NCIS 10

NCIS 6 reverse

NCIS 7

NCIS 12

NCIS 8

NCIS 13

NCIS 9

‘...in these parts of

Pembroke, in our own times, unclean spirits have been in close communication with

human beings. They are not visible, but their presence is

felt all the same’. (Giraldus Cambrensis, 1188)

Published details of the excavations at the site are available from:

www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/?mode=project&id=405 Thanks to Chris Caple for providing images and text.

Post script... Remember that incised stone from Arisaig, Moidart, featured in RA10? It was found built into an undated, ruined structure, but unlike the Nervern stones was clearly facing outward and very visible. Might this stone have once had similar origins to the Nevern slates? If any readers have encountered similar stones we would love to hear from you!

Incised stone from Arisaig.

(Lines enhanced in Photoshop)

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Warding off misfortune The concept of apotropaic magic – intended to ward off evil – has ancient roots, with examples including a decorated ‘wand’ shown above, from Thebes, Egypt, dating to the Late Middle Kingdom, around 1750 BC. Made of hippopotamus ivory, these wands enlisted the support of that fearsome beast against evil. The carved detail depicts a procession of protective deities. The wand would have been used in rituals associated with birth and were perhaps used to draw a magical circle around the mother and child. The Ancient Greeks also used apotropaic objects, the most commonly the Gorgon, with its wild eyes, fangs, and protruding tongue. ‘Eyes’ have often been used to ward off the ‘evil eye’; fishing boats in some parts of the Mediterranean still have an eye painted on the prow. On churches and castles, gargoyles and figures such as sheela na gigs were carved to frighten away malign influences; the grotesque faces carved into turnip (more recently pumpkin) lanterns at Hallowe’en are meant to avert evil during Samhain, a period when souls of the dead and other dangerous spirits walked the earth.

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BRAG 2014: The University of Edinburgh

By Andy Curtis

Andy Curtis

Feeling in need of a prehistoric rock art fix, I travelled up to Edinburgh on Saturday 3rd May to attend the annual conference of the British Rock Art Group. There was a good balance between academic researchers and interested amateurs, with both represented in the talks program; conference fees were kept low and organiser, Tertia Barnett, and the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Edinburgh University made us all very welcome.

Andrew Jones of the University of Southampton gave the key note talk that opened the conference, Art before the rocks: rock art and the decorated artefacts of Neolithic Britain. He described elements of portable art in the Neolithic, including decorated mace heads, chalk plaques, carved stone balls and stone and antler mace heads. What seemed to be important was the act of making and decorating rather than the completed artefact itself. The decoration of chalk artefacts in particular seem to have been often reworked, the most spectacular example being the Folkton Drums from North Yorkshire, recently examined. See here for details:

http://prehistories.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/scanning-the-folkton-drums/ What can such objects tell us about the carved rocks of the Neolithic? Is there evidence for these too being reworked? Was the act of carving the rocks more or just as important as the finished design?

Andrew Jones's recent work on the rock art of Kilmartin was published as ‘An Animate Landscape: rock art and the prehistory of Kilmartin Argyll, Scotland'. His wider review of the role of art in Neolithic Europe (edited with Andrew Cochrane of the British Museum) was published as ‘Visualising the Neolithic'.

The talks were split in four sections: Scottish Rock Art: Discovery and Rediscovery, Rock Art Recording, Conservation and Management, and two sections on World Rock Art: Research and Interpretation. The abstracts can be found at

http://www.ed.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.138485!/fileManager/BRAG_2014_abstracts.pdf Andy Jones recording the Folkton Drums

In addition there were a number of poster presentations, a hands-on workshop on rock carving by Andy McFetters a demonstration of the Ughtasar Rock Art Project Picture Viewer (http://www.mcfetters.co.uk), and recent changes made to England's Rock Art Database (http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/era/) with addition of data from the CSI: Rombalds Moor project. There were many highlights for me, and I don't have room to list them all.

Antonia Thomas told us about the 600 examples of incised, pecked, cup-marked and pick-dressed stone recovered from the excavations of the Orkney Ness of Brodgar excavation many of which were found in situ within the buildings. (See more on the Project website at http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar.) Many of the markings found in the buildings were not located on visible surfaces. Again, was the act of making the markings more important than the markings themselves?

Detail of Eldwick rock art panel

Trevor Cowie then gave us an historical account of rock art finds in the south-east of Scotland, where they remain uncommon. Like Cumbria, are they scarce here because of the predominant geology? George Currie told us of his recent discoveries in new regions of the Highlands. Some of these were some distance from existing known sites and may have been associated with ancient routes through the glens.

The description of a Neolithic incised stone found in the wall of a ruined blackhouse in Arisaig by Ken Bowker made me realise how often such stones may be overlooked. The Arisaig stone is only shallowly incised and the lines become invisible in anything but raking light. In contrast, new rock art at Eldwick of a large boulder carved with around 60 cups and connecting grooves, found at the end of the Rombalds Moor project, had been surprisingly unrecognised. Louise Brown gave us a final update of the watershed project that culminated in this find by project volunteers

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In the Round the World sessions, there were interesting talks by Tertia Barnett on rock art in the northern Sahara, and Richard Jennings on Saudia Arabia, with evidence in both places of very different prehistoric climate.

The two most captivating sites for me though were Aron Mazel's account of the amazing rock shelter paintings of the Didima Gorge in the Drakensberg mountains, and Tina Walkling's talk on of the carved boulders in the wonderful mountain landscape of Ughtasar in Armenia. (See http://www.ughtasarrockartproject.org/). Aminals, human and representation of hunting predominate in these contexts making me wonder why they don't feature in ours here in Britain.

In the Didima Gorge, 3909 paintings occur at 17 rock shelters. Aron Mazel has proposed that the richness of the gorge’s rock art is associated with its acoustic properties making it a significant spiritual place for the San hunter-gatherers. The record made by Harald Pager in 1972 Ndedema : A Documentation of the Rock Paintings of the Ndedema Gorge illustrated by hand-coloured, black and white photographs looks like a book worth having.

Animals in the Armenian landscape

Goats Crag rock shelter. Photo A Curtis (2010).

Cezary Mamirski brought us back to the British symbolic form with his description of the prehistoric cultures and rock art tradition of Sardinia.

The problems of conservation and management of British rock art was raised in several talks. Myra Giesen described a new staging system for rock art erosion and the correlation with exposure and soil salt content (https://research.ncl.ac.uk/heritagescience/). A new open-source smartphone application called EpiCollect (http://www.epicollect.net), introduced by Louise Felding, could make a good tool for ongoing recording and monitoring.

Recent damage to panels at Lordenshaw and graffiti on rocks as far apart as Ilkley Moor and Ughtasar show that human damage is not isolated. Although scheduling did nothing to protect the Lordenshaw rock, it was good to hear that 17 new sites in Northumberland, including Ketley Crag rock shelter, Weetwood Moor, Lemington Wood, Amerside Law and Buttony, have been recently awarded Scheduled Ancient Monument status, a direct result of recording by volunteers on the Northumberland and Durham Rock Art Project (NADRAP). One element of scheduled status is both legal protection, and regular monitoring through the Heritage at Risk program.

Another site scheduled for protection by English Heritage is Goats Crag rock shelter, whose unique animal carvings seem to me not dissimilar to some of those shown on boulders of Ughtasar. The prehistoric nature of these motifs has always been controversial, and some doubt that they were even made artificially. However, the stunning location and the mystery of the animal motifs intrigue me.

George Nash was unable to attend but his talk would have discussed the recent trend for defacing of contemporary graffiti by rival street artists. In contrast, reworking and adding to earlier art seemed to be the accepted norm in the prehistoric world.

Robert Wallis finished off with a talk on the history of entanglement of shamanism and art that have led us to assumptions about the origins of prehistoric symbolism. Perhaps the hallucinogenic effects of magic mushrooms have nothing to do with cup and ring motifs at all. Artistic people I know seem able to use their imagination without recourse to an altered state. Prehistoric artists would have been no different.

A poster by Alan Calder of the Edinburgh Archaeology Field Society on the rock art of Tormain Hill provided an introduction to Sunday's field trip to rock art sites in the Edinburgh area. Another group headed south to Roughting Linn in Northumberland.

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BRAG Field Trip 2014 Ian Hawkins (Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society)

On Sunday 4th May 2014 following the BRAG Conference a visit was organised to local rock art sites. The first of these was Corstorphine Hill, where four cup-marked rock panels are located within an area of roughly 100m x 100m on gently sloping, glacially fluted and smoothed dolerite bedrock on the west side of the hill, approximately 40 m to the west of a high point on the undulating ridge of the hill.

The rock panels lie in a clearing within woodland, with relatively open and extensive views to the south and west over the outer suburbs of Edinburgh to the Bathgate Hills in West Lothian and the south western Pentlands. The area, which is situated in the Edinburgh greenbelt, is a Council managed local nature reserve, conservation area, listed wildlife site and geodiversity site with public access.

The site consists of a main group of eleven cups with outliers to the North, South and West, a total of 21 cups, although there may be others obscured by vegetation. As is customary on these occasions, the group had a look around the site and located two other sites with smallish incomplete pecked rings, one about 20m to the West and the other at the high point of the hill some distance to the South.

We were treated to a demonstration of rock art photography technology by Cesary Namirski involving a cape or hood and a LED inspection light.

Cups and fissures on the glacially smoothed dolerite at

Corstophine Hill.

Cezary demonstrates his technique!

Is that another? Andy Jones, Kate Sharpe, and Cezary Namirksi

debate a possible new cup. Photo: Ian Hawkins.

The group then proceeded to Tormain Hill, near Ratho. Here, seven prehistoric carved rocks are located within an area of roughly 10m x 5m on the summit and gently sloping southern side of a distinct knoll situated towards the south end of a low, prominent ridge of whinstone, known as Tormain Hill, approximately 1.5 miles to the south west of Ratho. The ridge, which rises to a maximum altitude of 156m asl at the summit of the knoll, offers extensive views in all directions. The ridge is under mature open woodland, comprising a mixture of deciduous and evergreen trees with grass cover below.

Cups and rings at Tormain Hill. Image: Ian Hawkins.

The area is in private ownership but has access via a well-used public footpath running from the southern outskirts of Ratho along the length of the ridge. A sign for ‘Cup and ring marked stones’ is situated approximately 20 m N of the carvings. The main cup and ring carving was very impressive, if difficult to see in the prevailing light, and among the others was a stone which had been re-decorated with an Ordnance Survey benchmark arrow!

There was also a large “Witches Stone” bearing a number of cup marks which was located 200m away in a field to the North West. This was blown up in 1919 and pieces of it were said to be incorporated into drystone field walls but no traces of it could be found.

At this point, with flights and trains calling the visit had to be terminated. Thanks to Tertia Barnett for organising the visits, to the members of the visiting party for their expertise and to Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society members for showing the way.

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DATES for your DIARY: Forthcoming Conferences and Events If you have an event you would like to publicise here please send me the details.

2nd Nov 2014 Archaeology in the Lake District. (Tickets almost sold out) A day conference at The Theatre by the Lake, Keswick. Details on the website: http://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/learning/archaeologyhistory/archaeologyconference Paul Brown will be presenting a paper on his finds in the Lake District.

3rd Nov 2014 Neolithic Studies Group: Neolithic bodies. British Museum, London. See website for details: http://www.prehistoricsociety.org/events/event/neolithic_studies_group_neolithic_bodies/

3rd Nov 2014 The discovery and excavation of previously unknown Neolithic and Early Historic timber halls and a Bronze Age cemetery. Bruce Glendinning, Lockerbie Academy. Boarder Archaeology Lecture Series. 7.30pm, Parish Centre, Berwick Upon Tweed. Members Free, Visitors: £2.00 See http://www.border-archaeological-society.co.uk/

15th-17th Dec 2014 Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference, Manchester Including a session entitled: A 3D Digital Image Can Tell a Thousand Words. The Application of Digital Imaging Technologies beyond Documentation. Session organiser Joana Valdez-Tullett is a rock art researcher at the University of Southampton. http://www.tag-manchester.org/

7th Mar 2015 People in Prehistory: Creating communities. The Bronze Age Forum, day conference. The third in the series of People in Prehistory day conferences, focusing on the nature of communities in prehistory. Booking details and full programme will be on the website in due course: http://www.prehistoricsociety.org/events/event/bronze_age_forum/

2nd May 2015 British Rock Art Group Annual Conference, Bristol University. See page 6 for details and contact information.

If you would like to submit an article to Rock Articles please contact me at kesharpe@outlook.com. Feature articles. Contributions are invited for articles on all aspects of Rock Art in Britain and Ireland, including recording techniques, interpretation, management, presentation, education, and conservation. We are keen to hear about any community projects, heritage initiatives, new techniques, new research, and to provide a forum for anyone with an interest in rock art. Perhaps you have been to a conference and could write a report, or have participated in a workshop or training event? Articles should be 750-1000 words, and should include at least two images (for which you should have permission). New Discoveries. If you have identified any new rock art and would like to feature your find in the New Discoveries section of Rock Articles, get in touch, with a photograph of your find. Please note that grid references will not be included in Rock Articles. Finds should be reported to and verified by the relevant local authority HER officer. British Rock Art News. Do you have some news about your project, or an update on a particular panel that you can fit into less than 200 words? Why not share it RA readers? Inspired by Rock Art? Rock art often inspires creative responses. Have cup and ring marks fired your imagination? If so we’d love to see your work! Events and opportunities. Are you running an event that might be of interest to RA readers? Let us know about any talks, conferences, or guided walks. Maybe you are looking for participants for a community project? Advertise here and use the RA network to spread the word.

Submission deadline for Rock Articles No. 13: 28th Feb 2015

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ROCK ART READS: New and Forthcoming Publications

Home: A Time Traveller's Tales from Britain's Prehistory. Francis Pryor.

From Amazon: Francis Pryor's search for the origins of our island story has been the quest of a lifetime. In Home, the Time Team expert explores the first nine thousand years of life in Britain, from the retreat of the glaciers to the Romans' departure. Tracing the settlement of domestic communities, he shows how archaeology enables us to reconstruct the evolution of habits, traditions and customs. But this, too, is Francis Pryor's own story: of his passion for unearthing our past, from Yorkshire to the west country, Lincolnshire to Wales, digging in freezing winters, arid summers, mud and hurricanes, through frustrated journeys and euphoric discoveries. Evocative and intimate, Home shows how, in going about their daily existence, our prehistoric ancestors created the institution that remains at the heart of the way we live now: the family.

ISBN-10: 1846144876; ISBN-13: 978-1846144875; Hardcover; 352 pages. Allen Lane. Price GB £13.60

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Home-Travellers-Tales-Britains-Prehistory/dp/1846144876/

Desert Boats: predynastic and pharaonic era rock-art in Egypt's Central Eastern Desert. BAR International Series 2544. Francis Lankester.

From Archaeopress: The aim of this study is to explore the rock-art of the Central Eastern Desert and has three objectives: to outline the petroglyphs’ distribution, to date them, and to explain who created them and for what purpose. It focuses in detail on the animal, human and boat images within the geographical and chronological context in which they were created; the landscape of what is now the Central Eastern Desert, and the Naqada, Pharaonic and Greco-Roman Egyptian cultures.

ISBN 978-1407311647; 138 pages; illustrated throughout. Archaeopress. Price GB £19.

www.archaeopress.com/ArchaeopressShop/Public/defaultAll.asp?QuickSearch=lankester&displayedSearchLanguageID=true&LanguageID=0

Rock Art and Regional Identity: A Comparative Perspective. Jamie Hampson Due 31 Dec 2014

From Amazon: Why did the ancient artists create paintings and engravings? What did the images mean? This careful study of rock art motifs in Trans-Pecos area of Texas and a small area in South Africa, demonstrates that there are archaeological and anthropological ways of accessing the past in order to investigate and explain the significance of rock art motifs. Using two disparate regions shows the possibility of comparative rock art studies and highlights the importance of regional studies and regional variations. This is an ideal resource for students and researchers.

ISBN-10: 1611323711; ISBN-13: 978-1611323719256 pages; hard back; Left Coast Press Inc. Price BG £53.36

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rock-Art-Regional-Identity-Comparative/dp/1611323711/