Scotland’s Archaeology Strategy has launched a new guide – Identifying and Recording Scotland’s Prehistoric Rock Art. This was produced off the back of the successful completion of Scotland’s Rock Art Project . The guide describes techniques for locating, identifying and recording rock art and is aimed more at students, community groups, and individuals that are interested in this area of archaeology, but will also be of interest to professionals as well.

The Short Guides are issued under an Open Government Licence so anyone can download, host a copy on their own website or share however they wish.

This is the second a new suite of guidance that is being delivered as part of Scotland’s Archaeology Strategy. You may remember the first which came out last year, about lithic scatters, authored by Caroline Wickham-Jones. The Recognition and Investigation of Lithic Scatter Sites in Scotland .

The Archaeology Short Guides will be a new series of best practice guides and how-tos on a range of subjects about Scottish Archaeology. You will be aware of Managing Change in the Historic Environment, which these are not intended to replace. Managing change sits under Scottish Planning Policy and HEPS and has a formal status in that regard, and is all about informing changes to the historic environment. The short guides will be equivalent to the old HS technical advice notices (TAN), if you remember them, and are more guidance about techniques or specialist subject areas in Archaeology.

Important to note that although hosted and delivered by HES, these are very much a strand of Scotland’s Archaeology Strategy.