The Bronze Age Residents of Juniper Green
Dr Alison Sheridan pictured with the skull found at Viewforth in Juniper Green in 1851 photographed by Tony Marsh of the Edinburgh Evening News
The speaker at the March 15th event in the JG300 programme was Dr Alison Sheridan, Head of pre-History at the National Museum of Scotland.
Dr Sheridan showed where the two major Bronze Age discoveries in Juniper Green were found in 1851 on Lanark Road and in 1898 on Woodhall Terrace.
Map and location of the Bronze Age discoveries in Juniper Green in the nineteenth century
Close up of map
Alison brilliantly linked in the Bronze Age story of Juniper Green into current research findings. It is now believed that trade amongst the people of Britain some 4000 years ago was very widespread. Alison explained, with relevant examples, the extent of trading from Orkney in the North to Wessex and Cornwall in the South with Whitby jetstone of particular value too. Trading also extended into Europe. It was a magnificent lecture that held her audience spellbound for over one hour.
Rapt attention by the audience during the Bronze Age talk at Juniper Green when the image of the skull found in 1851 was given a red nose to mark Comic relief Day 2007
Alison noted that the Bronze Age man would be delighted to know that he was participating in JG300 but that we should add the numbr 4 in front of our age and call it JG4300 in view of the Bronze Age skull's age. Further experiments on the bones continue in a major project linked with Sheffield, Bradford and Leipzig Universities. Alison promised to send details of further scientific results to the JG300 website when they become available. She completed her talk by taking a few questions from the audience.
The evening ended with discussions over coffee.
Missed the talk? Read the notes (pdf) - slides not included. Please note that these notes have been re-produced in print together with a copy of the slides used by Dr Sheridan at her talk in Juniper Green on March 15th 2007 and placed in the Edinburgh City Libraries at Wester Hailes, Currie, Colinton and Balerno.
Read about it in the Evening News on Wednesday 14th March: New tests add years to story of skull find (read online).