Portrait of Alexander Carmichael courtesy of the Carmichael family and copyright of the University of Edinburgh Pic: Uni. of Edinburgh

One of the most famous sources of Scottish lore and mythology is the Carmina Gadelica (“Songs of the Gaels” I think) which can be read online at Sacred Texts. The wonderful version online at Sacred Texts has the Gaelic and English versions side by side. We have already used sections from this massive two-volume tome in our shows and plan to use much more as we focus on the Scottish myths in the future.It is fantastic news to find out that the Carmina is estimated to be only a tenth of the lore and knowledge that Alexander Carmichael collected, and many of Carmichael’s lost note-books have been prepared for online publication by researchers at the University of Edinburgh. In June 2011, the BBC reported that:

The notebooks of the Scottish folklore pioneer Alexander Carmichael have been prepared for publication. It will be the first time Carmichael’s work has been available in its entirety. From 1860, he spent 50 years collecting legends, songs, curses and oral history from Gaelic-speakers.

Researchers and archivists have worked for two years preparing the notes for publication by the University of Edinburgh. Carmichael’s work has led to him being likened to the brothers Grimm in Germany.

His volume Carmina Gadelica, published in 1900, is estimated to have included only a tenth of his original research material. Senior researcher Dr Donald William Stewart said:

Alexander Carmichael tirelessly, even obsessively, recorded the culture, lore and beliefs of his native Scottish highlands.

Folklore Jukebox

By the end of his life in 1912, he was both Celtic guru and folklore jukebox, the internationally-recognised authority on Scottish Gaelic songs, stories, traditions and beliefs.

Carmichael’s voluminous papers, now preserved in Edinburgh University library, form one of the foremost folklore collections in the world.

Carmichael carried out his research while working as a tax collector on Lewis, Argyll, Uist and the west highlands. Researchers said the transcription of his notes was hindered by his “notoriously bad handwriting”. The work has been published online at the Carmichael Watson project website.

The Carmichael Watson Project

The Carmichael Watson collection in Edinburgh University Library, centred on the papers of the pioneering folklorist Alexander Carmichael (1832-1912), is the foremost collection of its kind in the country, a treasure-chest of stories, songs, customs, and beliefs from the Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland. It offers us fundamental insights into the creation of Carmichael’s greatest work Carmina Gadelica, an anthology of Hebridean charms, hymns, and songs, and a key text in the ‘Celtic Twilight’ movement.

The value of the collection goes far beyond literary studies. It offers exciting potential for interdisciplinary cooperation between local and scholarly communities, for collaborative research in history, theology, literary criticism, philology, place-names, archaeology, botany and environmental studies.

Through cataloguing, indexing, transcribing, translating, digitisation, and conservation, this project aims to open up and make accessible this important collection to the academic and broader community.

What wonderful news! There is so much research information available in the Project’s data on their website that you could lose hours just browsing through it and learning of Carmichael’s life and the places and people that he visited. Some of the notebooks have wonderful summaries of subject, place, theme and family (along with a map) as well as an image or transcript of the text. Some images I had trouble loading and some had no transcript (I assume this was because of the difficulty in reading Carmichael’s hand-writing!) and some as yet have not been scanned! Ongoing work then

 An Example Leaf from a Carmichael Notebook

Onan cu cuinich a laimh.In going to S. (Saint) Cyril’s the four  men carrying the bier are each sup (supported) by other four men to steady them. They run rather than walk up – while the rest of the people follow as well as they  can. The cra-leaba is smashed  up against a tree immedly (immediately) the  corpse is taken off. Con. (Consequently)  a new bier is req. (required) for each  funeral of the episcop. (episcopal church). For  wood is plent (plentiful) in the place.Seangan mound close to  Leacan drom abt (about) 3 ft (feet) high x 3 ft (feet) long oval top.  (‘Cha bu toil liom do fo d  chomarsaich’ Bu choma  liom’)

Image of notebook ref. GB237 Coll-97/CW120/103, copyright of University of Edinburgh Pic: Carmichael-Watson Project

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Pic: Bogensfreund

The first ever Code of Practice for Treasure Trove in Scotland is designed to ensure everyone involved with found objects of archaeological, historical or cultural significance understands the procedures which enable them to be claimed on behalf of the public. Since ancient times, the common law of Scotland has been that Treasure Trove and other property which is lost or abandoned, or has no obvious owner, belongs to the Crown.

They do not belong to the owner of the land where they were found, or to the finder, but are allocated to public museums for research or public exhibition.  The Queen’s and Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer (QLTR) recognises the contribution of members of the public who make chance finds and will, in most cases, make an ex-gratia payment to the finder. The new Treasure Trove Code of Practice sets out the chain of responsibility for the various bodies involved and clarifies the process of determining the appropriate award for a particular object. Continue Reading »

Originally posted 2009-02-17 10:03:37. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Pic: Scott MacLeod Liddle

Stone Pages reports that Kilmartin Glen, in Argyll, has one of the most important concentrations of Neolithic and Bronze Age remains in Europe. The glen contains at least 350 ancient monuments, many of them prehistoric, including burial cairns, rock carvings and standing stones.  But archaeologists have identified a period of almost 1,000 years in which no monuments were erected and the population there ‘diminished’.  They claim this period is marked by the start of a colder, wetter climate.

Dr Alison Sheridan, an archaeologist and head of early prehistory at the National Museum of Scotland, who has studied Kilmartin Glen for more than 20 years, said:

The earliest activity dates back to hunter-gatherers around 4,500 BCE, who left behind nothing more than a few pits, charcoal and some flint. It was a sacred landscape from at least as early as 3,700 BCE until as late as 1,100 BCE. It was a place for ceremony, for burying people and observing the movements of the sun and the moon. We are not too certain what happened between 1,100 BCE and around 200 BCE. A hoard of swords has been found and a few artefacts buried as gifts to the gods in the late Bronze Age between 1,000 and 750 BCE. But there are very few structures and no settlements. Certainly, in some parts it seems to have become colder and wetter after about 1,200 BCE, and the people may have moved away.

Kilmartin Glen was home to self-sufficient and successful communities with links around the country and even overseas. Historic monuments include standing stones, a henge, a linear cemetery comprising five burial cairns and numerous cists, or stone coffins, which contained remains of adults and children as young as four. Neal Ascherson, visiting Professor at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, said climate change brought an end to

this strange, idyllic period of late Neolithic and Bronze Age in this area. The weather, which was dryer and finer than it is now, seems to have come to an end around 1,000 BCE, when it began to change and the whole ecology began to alter. At the same time, culture changed. The capacity or wish to build these monuments and indeed to honour them or take account of them, died away. And in the Iron Age nobody took much account of these monuments and certainly nobody tried to build anything of the kind again. Instead, you get a quite different culture in which you get tiny fortified settlements and you feel everything is colder and more hostile. The population diminished heavily, but whoever was left seemed to fear everyone else.

Sharon Webb, the curator of the Kilmartin Museum, said:

When the first people moved in to this landscape it would have been a landscape of plenty. It was a really rich place for the hunter-gatherer people to find enough resources to live.

[Source]

Originally posted 2008-11-18 09:09:23. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Pic: Orkneyjar

With the excavations on the Ness of Brodgar (Orkney, Scotland) drawing to a close this week, site director Nick Card feels its time for a major rethink about the landscape of Orkney’s Neolithic Heartland.
The long-held assumption that the Ring of Brodgar and Standing Stones of Stenness were the centre of activity needs looked at again, said Nick, senior project manager of the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology (ORCA). He explained: Continue Reading »

Originally posted 2008-09-14 10:29:49. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Could this be Nessie? Jon Rowe says his image shows a pair of humps which soon disappeared under the waves Pic: Nessie ?

The Daily Mail reported this week : It’s been said before and it’s being said again .. Nessie is alive under the waves of Loch Ness. Once more the notoriously shy Loch Ness monster has been reportedly sighted in Scotland’s deepest loch. This time close to a commercial fish farm.

Jon Rowe, from nearby Lewiston in Drumnadrochit, took the eerie snaps moments before the mysterious shape slipped beneath the water.

And the stunned fish farmer is convinced that the shapes he saw in the
morning light are Nessie.

He said:

‘It was a very strange morning. It was misty with a bit of rain and sunny at the same time.

‘There was a rainbow so I got my camera out to take a photo and noticed this really large dark shape in the loch with two humps that were barely out of the water.

‘My instant reaction was

“That’s Nessie”.’

Mr Rowe has dismissed claims that the shapes he saw in the water were not the legendary beast of the deep said to stalk the atmospheric Highland loch.

He added:

‘I have no doubt, I work on the loch everyday and I’ve never seen anything like it.

‘Almost as soon as I took the shot the shape disappeared under the water and out of sight.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2036998/Thats-fine-Ness-youve-got-Fish-farmer-claims-saw-loch-monster-says-photos-prove-it.html#ixzz1YsqawkW0

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Hunter Gatherer Pic: Hans S

Archaeologists in Southampton and Liverpool are investigating three island groups around Britain to help understand why people changed from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to farming the land.Academics from the Universities of Southampton and Liverpool are hoping to shed new light on the longstanding debate about whether this change around 4,000BC was due to colonists moving into Britain or if the indigenous population of Britain gradually adopted the new agricultural lifestyle themselves.

The archaeologists will be excavating three island groups in the western seaways – the Channel Islands, the Isles of Scilly and the Outer Hebrides – to understand what sailing across this area would have been like in 4,000BC.

The project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), will build on work at Southampton into how environments and the sea changed over the Neolithic period.

Dr Fraser Sturt, from the Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Southampton, says:

“How people changed from hunter-gatherers to agricultural lifestyles is one of the big questions in archaeology.

“We know that the first signs of domestication occurred in the Middle East around 10,000BC and reached France by 5,000BC. However, it appears to be another 1,000 years before Neolithic farming activities reached Britain.

“We are investigating why this happened by looking at changing social practices, possible environmental impacts and the nature of maritime technology and communication.”

Recent archaeological findings, such as French pottery in Scotland, suggest that colonisation from the continent could be one possible explanation for this shift in lifestyle. Studies show that the first colonists are likely to have travelled across the western seaways but there has been very little excavation of the islands to prove this theory.

Dr Duncan Garrow, from the University of Liverpool’s School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, adds:

“Archaeological findings, such as the bones of farm cattle from the fifth millennium BC and European pottery, and advances in radiocarbon techniques have given new life to the theory that European colonists settled in Britain and brought farming practices with them. To understand how possible this could have been, however, we need to turn our attention away from the mainland and towards the seas that form an important travel link between the islands around Britain.

“We are excavating on the Channel Islands, Isles of Scilly and in the Outer Hebrides, which form part of an important maritime zone that surprisingly has been given little scholarly attention in the past. We are constructing a database of all known fifth and fourth millennium occupation sites in and around each island group and starting a programme of radiocarbon dating to understand the chronology of activity within the western seaways.

“Our oceanographic work aims to explore the environmental context within which this transition took place and how seafaring activities impacted on people’s lifestyles. We hope that the environmental data will also be valuable to oceanographers and geographers for studying how the sea has changed over the centuries.”

The team’s findings will also be available to school children and the general public through the development of a series of web resources, including a navigation game on prehistoric seafaring.

You can follow this project on Twitter @Neolithic_Steps or go to www.neolithicsteppingstones.org

Source

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Pipefest Pic: Click to see App

Pipefest 1 is the World’s first bagpipe sheet music app! With sheet music for one hundred pipe tunes in a searchable index all in one place – the app is a great resource for pipers. Features: A collection of one hundred traditional and popular pipe tunes. All tunes embedded within app – no further downloading. Tunes indexed within time signature categories. Search function to help quickly find tunes..

Benefits:

An app relevant to pipers
Convenient way to store and index tunes
Provides useful reference resource for pipers
Easy to use when out and about
Available via iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pipefest-1

App Store: Pipefest 1

For information on piping and drumming apps please contact:
Magnus Orr – magnus@pipefest.com

Momedia – events & media production Scotland

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Description Page.
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One of the skulls recovered from the west cell of the Banks Tomb Pic: ORCA

National Geographic news reports:Thousands of human bones have been found inside a Stone Age tomb on a northern Scottish island, archaeologists say.The 5,000-year-old burial site, on South Ronaldsay in the Orkney Islands, was accidentally uncovered after a homeowner had leveled a mound in his yard to improve his ocean view.

Authorities were alerted to the find in 2010 after a subsequent resident, Hamish Mowatt, guessed at the site’s significance.

Mowatt had lowered a camera between the tomb’s ceiling of stone slabs and was confronted by a prehistoric skull atop a muddy tangle of bones.

“Nobody had known it was an archaeological site before that,”

said Julie Gibson, county archaeologist for Orkney.

Partial excavation of the site, called Banks Tomb, has confirmed it as the first undisturbed Neolithic burial to be unearthed in Scotland in some 30 years, Gibson reported in June.

“It’s certainly unusual to find one whose contents are so well preserved,”

the archaeologist said.

“We have got the assorted remains of many, many people who have been deposited in this tomb at different times

The 5,000-year-old human bones – numbering at least 1,000, but possibly as many as 2,000 – were found in just one of the five chambers of the Banks Tomb on South Ronaldsay.

New research, in which two separate cells in the tomb were investigated, has almost doubled this number to at least 14, though it is very likely this number will end up much higher.

The bones were preserved in several layers on the bottom of the stone-lined cell, or cist, which were divided by layers of silt, which might indicate that the tomb had been used over different periods of time and fell out of use in the intervening years.

Archaeologists now hope that these finds will help them determine how long the tomb was in use. They also hope, through DNA research, to be able to discover more about the people who were buried there.

Team leader Dan Lee, projects officer with the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology (Orca), said:

“To find 1,000 human bones, and possibly as many as 2,000 – there are still layers and parts of the cell to fully uncover – in just one cell, is absolutely amazing.

“We have discovered an incredible assemblage of disarticulated human bones. All parts of the human skeleton were represented, including tiny bones such as finger bones, sternums and kneecaps.

“They covered all age ranges, from very young children, perhaps even babies, to adults.

“We have managed to identify 14 individuals, but it is very likely that this number will turn out to be much higher.

“This gives us a really good indication of what to expect in the tomb’s other cells and an opportunity to study the people who lived and died in Orkney so many years ago.

“The next stage will be to fully excavate the passageway and the entrance, and we hope to get back to continue working on this fascinating piece of Stone Age archaeology.

“Unfortunately, because the conditions are changing inside as we’ve taken out the mud, silt and water, there is now a real danger that we’re going to lose key information.”

The archaeologists also hope to be able to get more information about the significance of the otter remains found in the tomb – if they have any.

Pic: ORCA

Mr Lee added:

“We’ve found otter droppings and bones, which proves that these animals have been using the tomb, and certainly the cell we’ve excavated, throughout the entire life and use of the tomb.

“It doesn’t seem to have been a problem that the otters were living in this tomb at the same time as the Neolithic people that built it, or to those who later used it and buried their dead here.

The Tomb of the Otters is just a few yards away from the larger Tomb of the Eagles, where remains of dozens of people were found.

Recent studies concluded that some of the people buried there may have suffered violent deaths.

There is no evidence that this was also the case for the people who found their last resting place in the Banks Tomb.

Pic: ORCA

Mr Lee said:

“We really can’t say anything about the use of the Banks Tomb yet.

“There is no evidence that they died of violence, but we only excavated a small part of the tomb, and it is really hard to tell what we will find in the future.”

Source1  Source2

You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Description Page.
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The BGS and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) have collaborated to produce a new navigation chart of Loch Lomond. The chart dataset can also be analysed for a variety of scientific purposes including geological interpretation.

The image below shows how one of Britain’s largest ‘lakes’ would look if the water was taken out.

Loch Lomond, pic source: BGS

On the video: pink colours indicate shallow areas; dark blues are the deep areas.

 Underwater Glacial Features

The loch lies at the southernmost edge of the ice limit during the last glaciation to affect Scotland. The survey shows glacial features, which will add to our understanding of how quickly the ice retreated. The Highland Boundary Fault, which separates the Scottish Highlands from the Central Valley, runs through the loch and the survey also provided an opportunity to acquire underwater data across this important structural feature.

Data were collected during a 7-week period from December 2007– January 2008. The BGS has extensive experience of using multibeam data in the marine and coastal environment, where the data have been used for a wide range of scientific research topics including mapping the habitats of marine flora and fauna.

The data are also widely used by marine management organisations with responsibilities for fisheries, oil and gas, cables/pipelines, conservation etc. This project is the first occasion that BGS have used echo-sounding equipment in freshwater.

Highland Boundary Fault

The geology of the loch is strongly influenced by the Highland Boundary Fault, a fracture formed several hundreds of million years ago that forms the boundary between the Scottish Highlands and Lowlands. The fault crosses Loch Lomond and can be seen on the elongate islands of Inchmurrin, Creinch and Inchcailloch. To the north of the fault the hard metamorphic rocks were more resistant to erosion and weathering than the softer sedimentary rocks to the south.

Evidence of the Highland Boundary Fault and the glacial features of the last Ice Age can be seen onshore around the loch, but for the first time, a sonar survey of the loch floor has revealed the detailed landscape that remained after the ice melted. The survey, conducted by the British Geological Survey and the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authoritywill help geologists to understand the changes that took place in our climate over 10 000 years ago and can be used to produce detailed charts of the loch floor.

Read more on the British Geological Survey website or contact Alan Stevenson for further information from the BGS.

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our description Page.
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Educational Visit Pic: The Clanranald Trust

You may remember a news post in the past about Russell Crowe  giving a prop Battering Ram from the set of The Robin Hood movie to the Charity  The Clanranald Trust. Well this weekend he is visiting  Duncarron Fort which is being built by the trust to help educate people on Scottish History.  The BBC reports : The actor is a friend of the trust’s chief executive Charlie Allan, after the pair met on the set of Gladiator.

Crowe announced his visit on Twitter saying:

“First time in Scotland, special.”

The star said he had  ”Scottish heritage”   in his family.

He is expected to arrive at the fort later, tour the site and meet those working on the project.

The Clanranald Trust is creating a motte and bailey, typical of a Scottish clan chief’s residence, where people will eventually be able to to experience the atmosphere of an authentic medieval working community.
The charity also provides extras for film battle scenes and the hope is that the site at Duncarron may be used as a filming location in the future.
Crowe has been supporting the trust’s work since meeting Mr Allan while filming Gladiator.

In 2009 he gifted a battering ram used as a prop on the set of Robin Hood to the fort project.

Last month he used Twitter to urge his 200,000 followers to support the work being done at Duncarron.

Work began to create the medieval village at Duncarron in 2008He also tweeted a “shout out” to First Minister Alex Salmond and other government ministers to thank them for backing the trust.
He said:

“Clanranald educating folks on Scottish history, also focus on helping the long-term unemployed and the criminal reform service, tough jobs.”

As part of a joint project between the trust and North Lanarkshire Council offenders on community service orders have helped with building and labouring work at the fort.
Chief executive, Mr Allan, who starred alongside Crowe in Gladiator and Robin Hood, said:

“Russell has always been interested in what we are doing ”He is the only guy on the planet I look up to. He is pleasant, generous and a great laugh.”

He added:

“His ongoing interest, support and encouragement in our project means an awful lot to us.”

To Find out more about this exciting project visit http://www.clanranald.org

Source

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Descripition Page.
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