Artists draw on Scotland's Neolithic past

Artist Alex Leonard's tribe is part of the new educational pack

Artists have drawn on Scotland's Neolithic past to create a series of new illustrations.

The artwork, which includes a tribe and a guide to building a ceremonial timber circle, is for a free education pack called The First Foresters.

It has been created by Forestry and Land Scotland, formerly Forestry Commission Scotland, and Archaeology Scotland.

The artists were guided by European Neolithic artefacts for their drawings.

Alan Braby's guide to the construction of a timber circle

The artefacts included axeheads made of a green stone called Alpine jadeitite.

Archaeologists and artists also drew inspiration from research of Ötzi the Iceman, a man whose 5,300-year-old corpse was found frozen in an Alpine glacier between Austria and Italy in 1991.

East Lothian-based Alan Braby, Orcadian Alex Leonard and Dr Alice Watterson, who works at the University of Dundee's Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, created the artwork.

Archaeologists worked with the artists on the project

Matt Ritchie, of Forestry and Land Scotland, said: "To populate our Neolithic wildwood we turned to archaeological reconstruction artists Alan Braby, Alex Leonard and Alice Watterson.

"Alan produced the bulk of the illustrations, including a fantastic image of a decaying timber circle being enclosed by an earthen henge, and a fabulous 'how to build a timber circle' instruction sheet.

"Alex Leonard illustrated our tribe, using a fact sheet style to explore our characters and the supporting archaeological evidence."

Artist Alex Leonard working on one of his characters