Rebecca Younger
MA (Hons) Archaeology (University of Glasgow)
MA Archaeology (Neolithic Archaeology) (University of Manchester)PhD Candidate [AHRC supported]
Archaeology
School of Humanities
University of Glasgow
GLASGOW G12 8QQ
phone: +44 (0)141 330 3925
email: r.younger.1@research.gla.ac.uk
Research Title
De-henging the Henge
Supervisor
Research Abstract
Although a long-established focus of archaeological study, our concept of Neolithic monumentality is still restricted by pervasive paradigms which are problematically rooted in typology, and influenced by contemporary assumptions which tacitly assume monuments to be static, ‘timeless’ and mnemonic. Monumental sites often developed over the course of centuries and incorporated many diverse expressions of monumentality; yet there remains a misleading tendency in archaeological discourse to arbitrarily privilege certain types of monument over others, and to fallaciously refer to discrete ‘phases’ of sites, privileging monuments over the activity of the people who made them. Currently prevalent approaches to monuments therefore overlook critical aspects of human agency and engagement, and the interplay of continuity, commemoration and change.
My research will redress these issues, through a critical reinterpretation of henge monuments in Scotland. Drawing on recent excavations, aerial photography and radiocarbon dating programmes, key research questions include:
- How were monuments as ‘sites’ changed and recreated over time?
- How can we engage with this time-depth archaeologically?
- How can we understand the inter-relationship of aspects of continuity (of location) and change (in form and emphasis of sites as they are recreated) at these sites?
- Why did the emphasis of sites change through time, and what does this allow us to say about concepts of symmetry, asymmetry, concentricity and enclosure?
- Can we understand monuments as being commemorative, and how might this illuminate the ways in which people engaged with the ‘past’, ‘present’ and ‘future’, and the ways they conceptualised time?
This will be achieved initially by employing the method of ‘monument biography’ to consider sites through their ‘life-histories’. Information from the University of Glasgow’s ongoing SERF (Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot) project will also form a central part of this research. By comparing the life-histories of different henge sites, such as those excavated by the University of Glasgow at Forteviot, I will explore wider concepts of continuity and change at Neolithic and Early Bronze Age monuments and how this can be understood as commemorative, through active repetition and re-imagining of the ‘project’ of monumentality.
Research Interests
Scottish Neolithic; archaeological theory; monumentality; temporality and concepts of time; commemoration.
Conference papers
- Brophy, K. and Younger, R. 'Trajectories of Change: Scotland before and after 3000 BC' Neolithic Studies Group Autumn meeting (British Museum, London, November 2011)
- McCabe, M., Novotny, J. and Younger, R. 'Why archaeologists should 'like' Facebook: the case study of Love Archaeology' Theoretical Archaeology Group 33rd Annual Conference (University of Birmingham, December 2011)
- Younger, R. 'Traditions of Innovation: continuity and change at Forteviot, Perth and Kinross' Theoretical Archaeology Group 33rd Annual Conference (University of Birmingham, December 2011)
Teaching Experience
- GTA Level 1 Archaeology of Scotland
- GTA Level 2 Analytical Archaeology
- GTA Level 2 Interpreting Archaeology
Other Experience
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the family of Sue Green, for the generous award of the Sue Green bursary.