Nick Card, of the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute and director of the Ness of Brodgar excavation, was a speaker in a British Museum talk last week on links between Neolithic Orkney and the rest of Britain and Ireland.
Chairing the event, Seren Griffiths also explored the passage tomb of Bryn Celli Ddu on Anglesey. Many of the artefacts and practices here emphasise a heavily interconnected late Neolithic world, with the sea providing a route between the islands of Ireland and Britain. Recent research here has revealed a monumental record of activity over 1,000 years and raises new questions about how sacred sites played a part in people’s daily lives.
Scientific and archaeological evidence tells us that Neolithic communities did not live in isolation; in fact, the scale of contact that may have existed across widely spaced regions challenges our perceptions of early farming and pastoralist societies.
Josh Pollard explored how these long-distance connections were sustained, and for what reason, and whether ebbs and flows in their intensity might relate to times of stability and instability.
Around 900 people, from 43 countries, tuned in for the online event, which was part of a public programme accompanying The World of Stonehenge exhibition at the British Museum.
There were some technical issues during the online broadcast, which have been edited out of the recording.
