On Monday, December 13, 21 members and friends braved the cold weather to attend the members' night at the Elpthinstone Hotel in Biggar.
The first speaker was Alan Paton would talked on aspects of site safety on archaeological sites. During his talk Alan demonstrated a number of practical implications, including how to correctly shore trenches and how to test for the presence of cables and pipes prior to excavating. The talk was well received and a number of questions were asked about safety procedures.
The next talk was given by Ian Borthwick who discussed the current Internet revolution in the context of the information revolutions which had occurred throughout history. He began by outlining the effect of the invention of the printing press on the spread of the reformation. Further parallels were drawn from throughout history. In conclusion he discussed the problems that would confront historians in the next millennium due to the increasing reliance on electronic storage media. The audience, though not all computer literate were most impressed by Ian's talk and asked several questions.
The penultimate speaker was David Hill. He spoke about recent discoveries in the Lee Estate. A number of people from the area turned up specifically to hear David's talk. They were not to be disappointed, he mentioned a variety of new discoveries which included a possible cranog, a Neolithic hut platform and a Mediaeval cross base. David also discussed the Lee Folly and talked at length about its construction.
The last talk, given by Ed Archer, was on the
Friary;
perhaps the most important
Mediaeval site to be found in the last decade in Lanark. He talked
about the buildings and the finds that had been made and how they
needed to be written up and reported so that the maximum information could
be gleaned from them. He said that over 1200 pieces of pottery had
to be catalogued and there were many more pieces of bone.