Stone

Available for over a year

In the first episode of the third series of EarthWorks, archaeologist Rose Ferraby travels to the Hepple Estate in Northumberland to explore a site where rock art has been etched into great boulders. Created around 4000 years ago, the circular forms and lines produce shapes and patterns that have invited all kinds of interpretation. Their enigmatic presence continues to inspire new perspectives on how people’s relationships with these landscapes have changed through time. Rose Ferraby is an artist, archaeologist and writer whose EarthWorks essays explore traces of human history around the British Isles. In the first series, Rose considered broad aspects of landscape - Wold, Fen, Mountain, Island and Moor, places in which archaeology can reveal change and human adaptations through time; and in the second series, she zoomed in closer to examine different cultural spaces preserved in the archaeological record - Town, Grave, Quarry, Field and Monument, all of which serve enduring purposes to this day. This new series focuses in fine-grained detail on the materials that have shaped human cultures and societies. Looking in turn at stone, wood, pottery, leather and metal, and the ways in which they’re crafted and understood, she reflects on how these materials can connect us to landscape, community and place. Written and presented by Rose Ferraby Produced by Mark Smalley A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3 Series Image: ‘Dark Peak’ by Rose Ferraby