A fresh slate: image, practice and multiplicity in the Manx Late Neolithic
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2017-04-13

Situated in the middle of the Irish Sea the Late Neolithic of the Isle of Man differs markedly from neighbouring regions of mainland Britain and Ireland. One of the features that marks out the Manx Late Neolithic is the production of miniature plaques of slate decorated with finely incised designs upon their surfaces. A recent programme of digital imaging has revealed extensive evidence of reworking and revision of designs on these slate plaques. How are we to understand these practices of revision and reworking?
In this paper I argue that the practices of making, working and revising designs on these small plaques must be understood relationally, evincing a series of connections to landscape, other artefacts, monuments and places. The making of both plaques and designs therefore raise questions regarding their ontology, as the practices of making and decorating draw together and bring into being a series of connections. This act of connecting by making, decorating and revising designs enacts a distinctively Manx Late Neolithic ontology of simultaneous difference/distinctiveness and connectedness. The Manx plaques are therefore best understood as ontologically multiple, or as ‘multiple objects’.

Andrew Meirion Jones, Southampton University