By Bernie Bell
I have just read of the passing from this life of Dr. Euan MacKie.
I met Euan at the Orkney International Science Festival………..I think in 2008 – I’m not good with time!
We got talking, then we emailed each other, and had some terrific conversations, discussions, agreements, disagreements.
I valued Euan, not only for his knowledge, but for his acceptance of other ways of seeing that knowledge. Also, because he was, simply, a very good-natured man. A gentle-man. Polite, reasonable, even when faced with un-reasonable behaviour in others.
I will light a candle for Euan. That isn’t a religious kind of candle – more, just – a thought about light – for Euan.
I could go on, but I think my best tribute to Euan, at this time, is to place here, copies of some of his papers which he sent me to read, for others to read……….
- Mackie article
- Mackie article footnotes
- Mackie article Fig 1
- Mackie article Fig 2
- Mackie article Fig 3
- T&M
They are only a fraction of his work – a long life, well lived, and a lot of observations made of things which others hadn’t noticed. We mostly discussed archeo-astronomy.
Writing that, reminded me of the fact that, recently, our neighbour discovered that there is a broch just down the road from us, which we hadn’t known about, but are very interested in. When I looked it up on Canmore, sure enough, who had included the information about this site in his Broch Corpus 1? Euan. https://canmore.org.uk/site/2425/north-aittit

Categories: Science
I forgot to include this one………..
https://www.academia.edu/11470159/New_evidence_for_a_professional_priesthood_in_the_European_Early_Bronze_Age?email_work_card=abstract-read-more
I met Euan at The European Association of Archaeologists at Glasgow and we spent a great couple of hours chatting about ancient astronomy over lunch!….he was so enthusiastic and supportive.. a great loss to archaeology and open-minded thinking and a very kind man.