This November, the Society was delighted to welcome two new appointments to its Council, a new President, and four new Honorary Fellows.
Diana has been a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries since 1976 when she started her career in Scottish Archaeology. She led RCAHMS from 2004 until 2015 when Historic Environment Scotland (HES) was formed, and played a leading role in the transformation of RCAHMS and Historic Scotland (HS) into the new body of HES before retiring in 2016.
Diana Murray CBE
In recent years she has been involved as a Trustee in the governance of a number of charitable bodies including the National Trust for Scotland. She was the Chair of Arts and Business Scotland until 2022 and currently chairs the Scottish Association of Marine Science (SAMS), an academic partner of the UHI. She was recently appointed to the Scottish Committee of the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This experience has honed her skills in the delivery of good governance, financial and legal compliance, transformational and strategic planning and, importantly, the delivery of those strategic plans.
She has served the Society in a number of different ways, but is particularly proud to have been one of the instigators of ScARF. As our new President, Diana is keen to keep and strengthen the important independent advocacy role that the Society plays in Scottish society and to support staff and Councillors in the efficient and innovative running of our Society. Most of all, Diana is keen that the Society serves its Fellows, especially by providing an interesting programme of lectures, events and other opportunities, as well as understanding the aspirations of our Fellowship both in Scotland and worldwide.
Diana is now the 39th President of the Society and the fourth woman to take on the role.
Jo has been a Fellow of the Society for almost two decades and has contributed to Scottish archaeology for the last 24 years as an excavator, an environmental/geoarchaeological specialist, a project manager, a writer and a researcher. She has been involved in Scottish projects of many periods and ranging from the Northern Isles to the Borders. During this time, she has enjoyed support from the Society as both an author and as a research grant recipient. She has a wide range of experience in project design and management, in excavation and public outreach, and in specialist research and academic publishing.
Ellen became a Fellow in 1973, and has spent over 25 years in senior posts in UK museums where she gained experience of capital projects, fundraising and community engagement. In Glasgow, she was part of the team that delivered a series of Lottery-funded major capital projects. In Birmingham, with its very young and diverse population, her focus was on community engagement. She has a long track record of archaeological publication and originally suggested the idea for the Dig It! project at the Society. Having retired as Director of Birmingham Museums, Ellen is in the process of relocating to Scotland.
Prof Barbara Crawford
Barbara Crawford was born and brought up in Yorkshire. She read Modern and Medieval History at the University of St Andrews, gaining a PhD in 1971. Her teaching and research career has been continuously attached to St Andrews, apart from a period studying archaeology at Newnham College, Cambridge and a short term lectureship at the university of Aberdeen. Her chosen research area has been the history and archaeology of the Vikings in the Northern Isles, focussing most particularly on the earldom of Orkney which resulted in the publication of books on ‘Scandinavian Scotland’ (1987) and “The Northern Earldoms’ (2013). Shetland provided an opportunity to pursue archaeological interests with her excavation of a Norse settlement on Papa Stour based on an inter-disciplinary research project (with Beverley Ballin Smith) and published in 1999 by The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. After retiring in 2002 She was made a Reader in the School of History and has also been given a visiting Professorship at the Centre for Nordic Studies in Orkney College (University of the Highlands and Islands).
Antiquarian interests have always been the basis of her cultural life in Scotland, as shown by her election as Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1964, making her one of the longest elected members of the Fellowship. She served time as a Council member (1988 – 1991), Vice-President (1993 – 1996) and President of the Society (2008 – 2011) during which time she chaired the Treasure Trove Advisory Panel of Scotland. Wider antiquarian interests saw her election as Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (1973), Member of the Norwegian Academy (1997) and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2001). In 2011 Barbara was awarded an OBE for services to History and Archaeology.
Dr Colleen Batey
Colleen has been a member of the Society of Antiquaries for Scotland since she was a student and was Vice President 2000-2003. She graduated from Durham University in 1978 and in 1984 gained her PhD there, with a study of the Viking and Late Norse period in Caithness. She retired from Glasgow University Archaeology in 2019, having researched on the Viking period in Scotland since 1978 and taught several generations of students at all levels since 1988 across a number of Universities (Leeds, University College London, Aberdeen, Glasgow Continuing Education). She has served on several national and international committees (e.g. Member of Ancient Monuments Board of Scotland 2000-2002, Panel Member Arts and Humanities Research Council c2008-2011; European Science Foundation Assessment Panel 2010-2013 and as President of the Scottish Society of Northern Studies). Between c 1989 and 1995 she was editor of Discovery and Excavation in Scotland and joined the Editorial Board of the Journal of the North Atlantic in 2010. She has published extensively, both books and journal articles, and the recent EUP volume eds Horne, Pierce and Barrowman 2023 Vikings Age in Scotland: Studies in Scandinavian Archaeology is dedicated to her long -standing contribution to the subject.
As Curator of Archaeology, Glasgow Museums (Kelvingrove) (1990 -2002) she curated a major exhibition on Scythian Gold from Russia at the Burrell Collection and was the British lead curator for the Vikings in the North Atlantic Smithsonian Millennial exhibition (1998-2002) with specific responsibility for object selection from Scottish Museums. This was viewed by 5 million visitors in North America across several venues. As a specialist in material culture she was head hunted to train Icelandic students in Viking artefactual studies. She has excavated extensively throughout Scotland, but also at Tintagel, Cornwall and in Iceland. She is internationally renowned for her lecturing on the Vikings in Scotland (e.g. The Stigler Lectureship, Arkansas 2000 and Beck Lectureship, University of Victoria, Canada 2007; University of Iceland and University of Lund). For the last 25 years she has lectured on small cruise ships around the Viking world, promoting Scotland on this wider stage. She currently holds honorary research posts at UHI, University of Durham, Hunter College, New York (Senior Research Collaborating Research Fellow (from 2003) and Adjunct Professor Graduate School, City University New York (from 2005).
Gordon Ewart is graduate of Durham University (History, English and Archaeology), he completed a PGCE at London University and is a member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
He moved to Scotland permanently in 1977 directing excavations initially at Aberdour Castle and Stirling Castle in 1977 and 78 on behalf of the then Scottish Development Dept (SDD). Since then, for over 45 years he has worked on behalf of a wide range of agencies including long standing consultancy work for the SDD and its successors (Historic Scotland/Historic Environment Scotland), the National Trust for Scotland, the National Museum of Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Gas/SGN, Scottish Waterways/Scottish Water, and the Royal Collections Trust. He has also collaborated with numerous archaeological units and other specialist companies, both in Scotland and UK, including AOC, Headland, GUARD, SUAT, CFA, ERM, Natural Capital and the De Bois Survey Group.
Gordon Ewart
Although based in Scotland, he has worked with a wide range of individual specialists from across the UK and abroad. This led to the development of new approaches to the archaeology of historic gardens, standing building survey techniques and Environmental Impact Assessment alongside the increasing use of digital technology in terms of recording, survey, data management and publication. This approach enabled him to maintain and develop a small specialist unit for over thirty years in an increasingly competitive field.
He is best known for his work on medieval and post medieval sites of all types. His early career in Scotland included excavations at Cruggleton Castle (1978-81), Jedburgh Abbey (with John Lewis 1984), Dundonald Castle (1985-88) Eyemouth Fort (with David Caldwell 1980-89). He also completed the first Urban Archaeological Survey (Inverness 1978) and supervised the Castle Bromwich Gardens research project for the Leverhulme Foundation 1987-92). After the foundation of Kirkdale Archaeology in 1991, he gradually expanded the range and scope of work for the group, to include a wide variety of sites and research projects of all periods, covering excavation, EIA, survey and publication, mainly in Scotland but also further afield.
Among many sites, he is best known for his work at Stirling Castle 1978-2020, Edinburgh Castle 1998-2017 and Holyrood Palace 1996- 2019. More unusual projects included excavation and survey work at Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle, Ghana (1992) and remediation works at Dounreay Castle on behalf of the UKAEA (1997-98). He ran the Properties in Care (PIC) Minor Archaeological Works contract for HS /HES from its inception in 1995 to 2015, covering a total of over 1,500 projects across Scotland. He has directed several public access excavations for HES, most recently at Tantallon Castle (2013-16). He also completed the salvage excavation and Standing Building Recording of the fire damaged Mackintosh Library for Glasgow School of Art with AOC Scotland (2012-13) Most recently, his team completed excavation and survey work at Holyrood Palace for the Royal Collections Trust (2016-2019).
He has published a wide range of monographs and articles covering his work on Scottish sites and he has recently completed a full account of the recent findings at Holyrood Palace which will be made available through Canmore the online national heritage database.
John Hume graduated in 1961 from the University of Glasgow. After three years of research in steroid chemistry he was appointed to teach the History of Science and Technology in the then-new University of Strathclyde’s Department of Economic and Industrial History, where he chose the new subject of industrial archaeology as his research interest. Between 1964 and the mid 1970s he surveyed industrial buildings, processes and plant throughout Scotland, and published three volumes based on his survey work. At the same time he began working with Michael Moss on the industrial archives of engineering and shipbuilding, notably of the West of Scotland, and they published jointly a number of books based on their work (notably on the distilling side of the Scotch Whisky Industry). He also took part in the excavation of three west highland charcoal iron-smelting works.
In 1984 he was asked to transfer, for an initial period of three years, to the Ancient Monuments Division of the Scottish Office, where, as well as advising on industrial monuments, he became a ‘Properties in Care’ Inspector. During that period he initiated extensive excavations at Whithorn Priory, Dundonald Castle and Machrie Moor stone circles on Arran.
Professor John Hume
In 1994 he transferred to the Historic Buildings part of what became Historic Scotland and retired in 1999 as Chief inspector of Historic Buildings. He took part in the revision of listing of railway buildings and lighthouses, and prepared the ground for the creation of the ‘Millennium Link’ restoration of the lowland canals. After his retirement from Historic Scotland he became deeply involved in the work of the Church of Scotland’s General Trustees and Artistic Matters Committee. In 2005 he was appointed Chair of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, retiring in 2015.
He recognised when he was appointed to a post in the University of Strathclyde in 1964 that this gave him a high level of responsibility to do the best he could to ensure that Scotland’s industrial heritage earned the respect he considered it deserved. He was particularly anxious that industrial archaeology became recognised as an area of academic study considered on a par with more ‘traditional’ areas of interest within archaeology. At the time he first became involved industrial archaeology was largely seen as the study of the industrial revolution period. In the same manner, history of science was seen as the study of the ‘Scientific Revolution of the 17th and 18th Centuries’. Throughout his career he has done his best to open up these two areas of study.
He was very fortunate to encounter many people who believed in what he was seeking to achieve. He is very grateful to all of them, but particularly to the late Professor SGE Lythe, who in 1964 launched him on the sea which has brought him here, to this shore.
Elected FSAScot in 1976 John R Hume’s photographic output is now a significant part of the Historic Environment Scotland archive (more than 40,000 images). He was awarded an OBE in 1998.
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