AT first glimpse it could be a strange and mountainous lunar landscape.
However, the striking image was not captured by an astronaut.
Artefacts dating to 4,500BC have been re-imagined for a series of photographs celebrating the treasures unearthed during archaeological digs across Scotland over the past year.
The “mountain” is flint flake, or waste material that was produced in the making of prehistoric stone implements.
The planetary sphere is a lead pellet, which could date to the 16th century. They have been transformed into “Hubble Telescope-like” space imagery by a Scots artist.
The photographs were taken earlier this month when the public joined the Galloway Glens Landscape Partnership and the National Trust for Scotland on the Threave Estate for a small archaeological excavation known as “test pitting”.
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Test-pitting is used to assess the archaeological potential of a site and artefacts from topsoil and subsoil deposits can sometimes be recovered.
Other photographs in the series were taken in East Lothian where volunteers helped unearth three early wooden railways on the route of Scotland’s earliest railway.
The Tranent Waggonway in East Lothian was first constructed in 1722.
It was initially built for hauling coal from a pit at Tranent to Cockenzie and Port Seton for use as fuel in a process for making salt.
New archaeological excavations have revealed three wooden railways, each one laid immediately on top of the last.
The project team said there was not another site like it in railway archaeology.
On the Isle of Lismore in the Inner Hebrides, Comann Eachdraidh Lios Mor (the Lismore Historical Society) invited the public to help uncover more of a 1,300-year-old cemetery linked to St Moluag, who is possibly Scotland’s first patron saint.
Other finds included a flint thumbnail scraper of late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age date used to work wood and clean hides and a 13th century medieval lead spindle whorl used when spinning yarn.
The Threave Estate images were captured by Chris Dooks, an artist working in photography, field-recording and music who carries out residencies in Scotland and the rest of Europe.
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They were commissioned as part of a series by the Dig It! project to celebrate the archaeological activity that took place across the country this summer.
Mr Dooks said: “As a dark sky enthusiast, I was very excited by working in a part of Scotland close to my heart.
“To be taken around the site by the professionals who were able to read the landscape was enlightening.
“In one photograph, I re-imagined artefacts from different time periods, such as a spindle whorl and piece of flinty quartz, as Hubble Telescope-like imagery with meteorites, lunar vistas and a piece of lead-shot for a moon, while another became a study of abstract forms.
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“I also chose a huge piece of unidentified rust to capture the spirit of what an object looks like as soon as it comes out of the ground.”
During the campaign, Dig It! shared updates from more than 20 fieldwork events across the country, most of which were open to the public as visitors or volunteers.
Dr Jeff Sanders FSAScot, project manager at the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland’s Dig It! project, said: “Archaeology is all about discovering Scotland’s stories and these photographs tell tales of stepping into landscapes, uncovering traces of the past and reconstructing lost worlds from the smallest fragments.
“It’s an imaginative process driven by people – one that can be fun and boisterous or calm and contemplative – so it was wonderful to see the public welcomed back to sites again this summer during the Scotland Digs 2021 campaign.”
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