Normanising the North: The Evidence of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian Sculpture
Abstract This Study Probes the destruction of material culture to illuminate the introduction of Norman political authority into northern England. A brief overview of Norman destruction of churches provides the background to a review of the potential relationship of Anglo-Saxon monuments with memory and identity, in the context of recent discussions of monument reuse. Durham and York, the Anglo-Saxon monastic sites at Wearmouth/Jarrow, Lindisfarne and Jedburgh, and a selection of local churchyards provide case studies. It argues that some monuments seem to have been deliberately targeted, but a wider range of factors, all ultimately derived from changing political circumstances, can be identified that explain why sculpture was removed and reused. The paper serves as a platform for further debate about the significance of monuments in the Middle Ages, and as a contribution to the broader discourse within archaeology about their social meanings.
A Fragmented Masterpiece: Recovering the Biography of the Hilton of Cadboll Pictish Cross-Slab
The cross-slab from Hilton of Cadboll in Highland is one of the best-known and most beautiful early medieval sculptures in Britain. Archaeological excavations in 2001 (initiated and managed for Historic Scotland and its partners by Sally Foster) provided a wealth of new information and prompted a major, multi-disciplinary reanalysis of this Pictish sculpture by a team of scholars. The sculpture's 1500-year-old story is rewritten. A biographical approach to the history of ths monument has enabled the changing meanings and values of the monument to be traced through time and has contributed to a wider understanding of attitudes towards early medieval sculpture.
Heritage Sites of Astronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the context of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention: A Thematic Study
"Following the publication of the first ICOMOS–IAU Thematic Study (“TS1”) in 2010, the IAU requested its Working Group on Astronomy and World Heritage to develop particular case studies in greater detail, so as to explore further and clarify some of the key issues highlighted in TS1 that can arise in the particular case of astronomical heritage sites. In doing so, it would further encourage and aid State Parties in the development of nominations. In collaboration with ICOMOS, nine “extended case studies” were duly prepared for discussion at a workshop held at Mount Cook, New Zealand, in June 2012 and presented at the IAU General Assembly in August of that year. 
 
A particularly complex issue is the recognition and protection of dark skies. Dark sky areas cannot in themselves be considered as potential World Heritage Sites, but a thematic chapter by Michel Cotte considers a range of ways in which dark sky values can be interrelated with broader cultural or natural values of a place and thereby contribute to its overall cultural or natural value and potential OUV. Other issues explored in TS2 include the need to balance archaeoastronomical considerations in the context of broader archaeological and cultural values; the potential for serial nominations, for example among groups of monuments whose astronomical significance is only evident from the group as a whole; and management issues such as preserving the integrity of astronomical sightlines through the landscape. 
 
The case studies included in TS2 include seven-stone antas (prehistoric dolmens) in Portugal and Spain, the thirteen towers of Chankillo in Peru, the astronomical timing of irrigation in Oman, Pic du Midi de Bigorre Observatory in France, Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and Aoraki–Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve in New Zealand. A case study on Stonehenge, already a World Heritage Site, focuses on preserving the integrity of the solstitial sightlines." 
 
Source: UNESCO portal to the heritage of astronomy