Destruction and Deposition at Duddingston Loch

Abstract

• Dr Matthew Knight is a Senior Curator of Prehistory at the National Museums Scotland, responsible for the Scottish Chalcolithic and Bronze Age collections. Matthew completed his BSc and MA at the University of Exeter between 2009 and 2014, during which he explored links between Bronze Age metalworking evidence, settlement activities and the landscape setting of metalwork hoards in Devon and Cornwall, as well as the phenomenon of older Bronze Age objects found in later Bronze Age hoards and settlements across southern Britain. In 2018, he submitted his PhD thesis to the University of Exeter: The Intentional Destruction and Deposition of Bronze Age Metalwork in South West England. This research involved an experimental programme analysing the deliberate destruction of swords, spears and axeheads to better understand what skills and equipment were necessary to undertake this practice. This allowed Matthew to reconsider and reinterpret a range of artefacts from a practice-based perspective, to better understand why objects were treated in this way. He is currently working to publish historic discoveries of hoards in Scotland, including the Poolewe hoard and the Duddingston Loch assemblage.