I've always been concerned with the visual representation of past people. I got the amazing chance to help create some characters for publications about prehistoric Scotland for @ForestryLS. Alex Leonard was the amazing artist I got to work with. #Archaeology31 Day 13

In Into the Wildwood, about the Mesolithic of Scotland, Alex and I were keen to show men, women, older people and children all as active and as real characters. Here's Plamen looking after young children on the west coast of Scotland.

Here's Oihana telling the story of how she got the boar's tooth she's holding.

Here are Pihla, a trapper, Eglay, a cliff-climber, and Nesa, a hunter.

And here's Yasen teaching flint-knapping. These characters can be found in Into the Wildwoods, which can be downloaded for free as a PDF here. https://forestryandland.gov.scot/what-we-do/biodiversity-and-conservation/historic-environment-conservation/learning/into-the-wildwoods

Previous to this I worked with Alex Leonard on characters for The First Foresters about the Neolithic of Scotland. Favourites from this one are Winta, a woman taking the bones of her mother home, Laki, a wood-worker, and Tanta, an old lumberjack.

And Sharmaarke and Uri, of course! Basically they're all my favourite. You can download this one too. https://forestryandland.gov.scot/what-we-do/biodiversity-and-conservation/historic-environment-conservation/learning/the-first-foresters

Here's a link to paper I gave at the first Public Archaeology Twitter Conference in 2017 on the representation of women and men in children's picture books that influenced my thinking for First Foresters and Into the Wildwoods https://kimbiddulph.net/2017/05/09/first-public-archaeology-twitter-conference-patc-28th-april-2017/