Bulletin
1, 1995
Archaeological Contribution to the Management Programme:
The Tarbat Discovery Centre and its Display
Notes towards an archaeological specification for the proposed exhibition itinerary and themes
Figure 20: Design for Display by Hal Higgins
(Higgins, Gardner)
Summary
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THEME 1: Kingdoms of the North
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THEME 2: Exploring the Firthlands
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THEME 3: Discovering Ancient Tarbat
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THEME 4: St Cholmag's People
On entry: Left: Project Manager's console; Right: under-tens' play pen; Ahead: The DISCOVERY MAP. Specification of the Discovery Map: A large, tilted plaque, with indicator buttons (church, burial ground, cropmark, excavation sectors 1-4, beach, inscribed stone, Viking hoard). Area to be covered: Portmahomack from sea to sea looking south. The viewer is flying over the Dornoch Firth. Front foreground, beach, with model boats; top of model cliffs of Rockfield, with seascape on painting beyond. Centre of model: (1) Tarbat Old Church, (2) its graveyard, (3) Cropmark, showing position of ancient settlement, (4) Area of dig in sectors [life of dig 5 years] then replaced by reconstructed village.
On E wall of Project Manager's console: display guide for teachers et al. Then:
THEME 1: Kingdoms of the North
Area:
- The North Sea, from N Ireland to Jutland and Shetland to Paris.
Time Zone:
- 400-1000 ("birth of Europe")
The Players:
- The Roman Christian kingdoms (France, Kent)
- The German pagan kingdoms (SW Norway, Malaren, Jutland, E Anglia)
- The Celtic Christian kingdoms (Ulster, Dalriada, Rheged [Cumbria], Welsh group)
- Unknown or undecided or vacillating: (Northumbria, Pictland)
The Theme:
- Formation of new kingdoms challenging each other across the sea.
The Nerve Centres:
- St Denis, Canterbury (Roman Christian): churches
- Borre, Sutton Hoo (Pagan German): burial mounds
- Clonmacnoise, Iona [Irish], Whithorn [British] (Celtic Christ.): monasteries
Also Tarbat - and mark the 'Firthlands' area to be highlighted in THEME 2.
The thoroughfares between them: sea-travel: (1) Brendan voyage (2) voyage based on Kvalsund ship; with quotes on navigation, (3) the beachmarket a Dark Age speciality. Add Quentovic, Gudme, Ipswich to map. Also admiralty wind-roses showing predominant winds in 'home-blowing system' which favours Scandinavia. Also model boats drawn up on Discovery Map. Also seagulls etc mewing.
THEME 2: Exploring the Firthlands
Area:
- Golspie to Nairn
- Iona to Portknockie
The Players:
- Irish of Ireland
- Irish of Dal Riada [=Ulster and Argyll]
- Northern Picts
- Southern Picts
- pre-Viking Norse of Norway
- British of Northumbria
- English of Northumbria
- Danes of Jutland.
The Clues:
- Place-names: Norse, Gaelic, Pictish
- Sculpture: Class I and Class II symbol stones, explanation, map, vignettes; a replica showing patterns and methods
- Aerial photography: examples of burial mounds [eg Garbeg], settlements, monasteries. [Use S porch as diorama of AP work; the visitor is looking through a plane window]
The Nerve Centres:
- St Denis, Canterbury (Roman Christian): churches
- Borre, Sutton Hoo (Pagan German): burial mounds
- Clonmacnoise, Iona [Irish], Whithorn [British] (Celtic Christ.): monasteries
- Additions
What was a Dark Age 'monastic site'?
- Timeline: known dates of missions
- Columba's 6th century journey up the Great Glen, his sighting of the Loch Ness monster and meeting with Brude, pagan King of the Northern Picts;
- What do we know? Art and archaeology at Iona, Whithorn, Jarrow, Lindisfarne [Lindisfarne gospels here]
- Monastic possibles in the Firthlands with their 'saints': Rosemarkie [=Groam House], Nigg, Tarbat.
THEME 3: DISCOVERY AT TARBAT
[3A] Discovery
How the Tarbat site was discovered:
AP showing cropmark, trench cut through it giving C14 dates, stone fragments from churchyard with gravediggers; position of discovery of Tarbat inscription in Manse wall; position of discovery of Viking hoard.
Where the stones come from:
"The fragments of stone dug up by gravediggers and disturbed by the construction of the medieval and later buildings come from an earlier burial ground of the Pictish monastery, 6 feet under where you are standing ----- look down this hole [=crypt] if you want to see what it looked like..... " [Full sized replicas, based on Tarbat patterns, with standing monkish figure based on the Monk stone].
[3B] Excavation
How we decided what to do:
Evaluation: geophysical mapping
What we decided to do:
the excavation programme, the reconnaissance programme in the Firthlands; the programme for experimental reconstruction.
What we have found so far:
A giant Bulletin Board, showing the
- area to be excavated, gradually being filled in as it is dug and
- the features, buildings discovered with explanations [mainly new photographs and drawings refreshed every year for first five years from dig and thereafter from reconstruction programme]
Interpretation:
[NB likely to change; uncertainty and question marks should be built in to maintain the 'quest' momentum]. The present story line is
- Pagan Pictish stronghold 200-700
- Pictish-Irish monastery (with later Northumbrian links) founded by St Cholmag
- Viking takeover
[3C] The Finds in the Strongroom
Materials available:
- Stone/clay objects - hones, querns, moulds
- Metal objects - pins, brooches, knives
- Animal bone
- Human bone
- Stone carvings
Themes: [eg]
- Food - quern grinding, bones butchered, pots cooking
- Metal working: lost wax; moulds, types
- Social organisation - animal bone analysis
- Health - human bone pathology
Presentation:
- In Cases: all objects;
- Standing Free: inscribed stone replica and Monk Stone;
- On Open Tables: animal bones with rebuilt cow (eg).
- On Counter: things to play with.
THEME 4: St Cholmag's Church and its People
- The church building and its story: The walls joining the crypt, the nave and the N aisle are excavated over an area about 3 x 4 m and seen from above under glass with walkway over. The pews at this end will have to be bargained away in favour of the display of ancient masonry.
- 3-D reconstruction colour-coded computer-generated drawing, showing the sequence of building
- A grave-memorial (or photomontage) from modern churchyard, matches spirit of Pictish one
- Photographic gallery [store-room under]
Return on Gallery, via Interaction
- Education [ex Lecture] room has moveable furniture to allow for guest exhibitions, children's art, functions, classes etc.
- Discovery work room [ex Education] has three work stations:
- Sites and Monuments of the Firthlands
- Excavation and Field Archaeology games
- Tarbat families, churchyard, myths. And one video, eg Cairns, caves and castles (Inverness Museum). Eventually, our own video.
Then into shop and off to the dig ........
Social and Economic Dividends from the Archaeological Excavation
The Excavation programme at Tarbat is primarily intended to increase knowledge of the human past. Although such knowledge is often thought to benefit mainly a limited group of specialists, this particular project is intended to address a large and important sector of the public. The principal discoveries made so far concern the Dark Ages, in which Picts, Scots and Scandinavians were involved in forming the kingdoms and states we still have. The research is therefore anticipated to have widespread contemporary relevance.
The objective is to use the Tarbat Archaeological Research Programme to deliver social and economic benefits to the area of NE Scotland.
The public constituency to be served can be divided as follows:
- Local children and adults
- Visitors within Britain
- Visitors from abroad
- The European and American cultural community
- Cultural Resource managers in Scotland
The methods by which the University expects to reach this constituency can be divided as follows:
- Site visits
- On-site training and work-experience opportunities
- Creation of displays, communicating the results of the research at Tarbat and in the wider area
- Making of educational videos
- Making of TV feature films
- Scholarly publication, including a Bulletin carrying interim results
- Popular publication, including the publication of a site guide
- Children's publications
- Teachers' packs
- Slide packs
- Provision of archaeological services as defined by CRM agencies
The projects currently planned to deliver the objectives are:
- For tourists, visitors and schools:
- A programme of fieldwork in which an open active excavation will be visitable by the public between 10.00 and 18.00 daily between July and September (a period broadly coincident with UK/Scottish school holidays) for five years.
- A programme of reconstruction of the ancient settlement which has been discovered
- Creation of a Museum to display loans of material discovered at Tarbat and at relevant sites at home and abroad.
- An exhibition and interactive educational foyer, in which schools can discover how archaeologists discover the past, supported by popular and scholarly literature.
- For school-leavers generally:
- Supervised work experience on site and in survey in sessions 2-3 weeks long.
- For students and those wanting to become archaeologists:
- A Field School (launched in 1994) in which undergraduate students and volunteers receive formal training which qualifies them to participate in archaeological projects elsewhere in the world.
- A programme of scholarships to encourage post-graduate students to undertake their qualifying research in the area.
- For the Scottish/European public:
- A regular chronicle in a Scottish newspaper
- A TV series with a Scottish company
- For the Cultural Resource Management Agencies:
- Creation of a Museum, delivering the required standards of Collection Care and Visitor Services.
- Creation of an archaeological service at Portmahomack, to include service of the SMR for Ross and Cromarty or other defined region, educational and outreach facilities and emergency services.
- For the scholarly public:
- Formation of an international research committee to promote conferences
- Development of direct collaborative link with parallel research in Norway
- Links with scholarly interest in USA, Denmark, Ireland
- For the quality overseas visitor:
- Creation of maritime tours of the Firthlands and beyond [in partnership with a suitable company].
Economic benefits
It is intended that the long-term result of the archaeological excavation will be:
- the creation of 2-3 local jobs in direct association with the development of the facilities at Tarbat Old Church (manager, curator, reconstruction supervisor, volunteer organiser). This will form a nucleus to which more job opportunities can be added.
- an increase in visitors bringing an increase in prosperity to the existing tourism providers.
- a long-term raising of the 'cultural profile', which should attract investment from educational and business providers, and assist property sales.
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Last updated 10 October, 2003.
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