Heather Ford
Email: h.ford@research.gla.ac.uk
Research title: Appealing to the Past in Uncertain Times: an interdisciplinary study of the reuse and evocation of prehistoric standing stones in the monumental epigraphy of early medieval Scotland.
Research Summary
Research aims and questions:
Early historic Scotland was defined by change, experiencing: the collapse of large political structures, the ethnogenesis of polities, mass migration, competing religious identities, repeated pandemics, and a climate crisis. In this period, the emerging traditions of monumental epigraphy (Pictish symbol stones, Group I stones, and Ogham pillars) varyingly re-used prehistoric material or its imagery, indicating a shared retrospective focus regardless of their social, cultural, political, geographical, or religious contexts. My research explores the shared re-use (or evocation) of prehistoric material across these traditions and asks:
- How can we identify and approach the re-use of prehistoric standing stones?
- How, when, and why were prehistoric standing stones re-used in early historic Scottish monumental epigraphy?
- Whether there a consistency of the practice across regions?
Research Interests
Epigraphy, Early-Medieval Archaeology, Spatial Discourse, Cultural Memory, Re-use, the Past in the Past.
Supervisors
Grants
This research is funded through the Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities (SGSAH) AHRC Doctoral Training Program and the University of Glasgow Graduate School for tuition and stipend.
Conferences
TAG 2025 - Monuments and the Past-Present-Future Nexus
Awarded the Don Henson award for the best debut paper.
Teaching
Graduate Teaching Assistant:
Celtic and Gaelic Level 1 Celtic Civilisation 1A
Celtic and Gaelic Level 1 Celtic Civilisation 1B
