Post-Pictish Problems

In this publication Martin Carver paints a picture of the Moray Firth area in its early Christian prime, and immediately afterwards, using only material culture. His main objective is to raise the profile of this period for archaeologists and move it right up their agenda for early Historic Scotland. Needless to say, the principal source of his evidence and most of his inspiration is the Tarbat peninsula, where he has been researching for 14 years.

Martin Carver is Editor of Antiquity, the leading journal of world archaeology and has been Professor of Archaeology at the University of York since 1986. Before that he was a free-lance contract archaeologist, directing research projects in England, Scotland, France, Italy and Algeria. From 1983-2005 he directed the Sutton Hoo research project, and in 1994 he came to Portmahomack to direct excavations there at the invitation of Tarbat Historic Trust. His books include Underneath English Towns (Batsford 1986), Sutton Hoo. Burial Ground of Kings? (British Museum 1998) and Surviving in Symbols. A Visit to the Pictish Nation (Birlinn 1999). His latest book is Portmahomack. Monastery of the Picts (Edinburgh University Press) an account of the Tarbat Discovery Programme, describing the ten year excavation of the Pictish monastery at Portmahomack and research on the Tarbat peninsula. Martin Carver delivered his Groam House Academic Lecture in July 2007.