Bulletin
5, 1999
Publicity, Publication and Display
Interim Publication: Until 1999 season by season reporting to fellow researchers was offered in the form of the Bulletins of the Tarbat Discovery Programme (1996-9), which were printed and distributed by hand. This facility has now been transfered to a website which will be found at www.york.ac.uk/depts/arch/staff/sites/tarbat. It can be found by most search engines by typing the word "tarbat". This site contains the full text and figures of Bulletins 1-4 and a catalogue of decorated sculpture, as well as details of how to participate in the project.
The Tarbat Discovery Centre was formerly opened by HRH Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay on 24 September 1999. In addition to providing the discoveries exhibited in the display, contributions by the archaeological team to the creation of the centre included the excavation and identification of walls from previous churches beneath St Colman's (Int 17/20), the provision of an archaeologically-recorded service trench (Int 22), the initial concept for the exhibition (developed with Hal Higgins), the initial research, design, scripting and revisions of panels in the nave and treasury, the creation of the "archaeology pit", the preparation of an inventory of sculpture or display, the selection and preparation of objects for display in the Treasury, the initial scripting of the audio-video material, and the compilation of the interactive data-base (accessible to the public through computer terminals), which contains information about the site, the Picts and their art and the annual progress of the excavation and the research programme.
To try our best for the Centre, it was necessary to display the results of the archaeological inquiry some years before the excavation was actually finished - which was never going to be easy. But thanks to the patient co-operation and rapid reactions of the architects, the designers and the Trust, it proved possible to incorporate into the exhibition most of the latest discoveries and the provisional 1999 interpretation as outlined above.
Public Lectures.
In the review period, Martin Carver gave lectures and seminars at the Tarbat Discovery Centre, at the Carnegie Hall Portmahomack, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland at Edinburgh and Aberdeen, Kilmartin Glen Centre, Highland Archaeology Week at Inverness, Inverness Field Club, Caithness Field Club at Thurso, the MacDonald Institute at Cambridge, the Department of Anglo-Saxon Celtic and Norse at Cambridge, the Society of Antiquaries in London, the Institute of Archaeology in London, the Roundabout Club at York, the Malton Archaeology Society and the University of York.
Recent Publications
Carver, M O H 1998 "Conversion and Politics on the eastern seaboard of Britain: some archaeological indicators" in B E Crawford (ed) Christianity and Conversion in the North Sea World (St Andrews University)
Carver, M O H 1999 Surviving in Symbols. A Visit to the Pictish Nation (Canongate, Edinburgh)
Carver, M O H 2000 Discovery at Tarbat (Site Guide, 2nd edition)
Tarbat Discovery ProgrammeWebsite at www.york.ac.uk/depts/arch/staff/sites/tarbat
Figure 7: The Display Centre under construction in September 1999, looking
east. The steps to the crypt may be seen surrounded by railings in the centre
[N243/05]
Figure 8: The archaeology pit (left) with the introductory film projected
above it, and (right) the time line . [N243/27]
Figure 9: Visit of Prince Charles Duke of Rothesay to open the Tarbat
Discovery Centre on 24 Sep 1999 [N242/28].
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Last updated 10 October, 2003.
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