Our knowledge of the use of livestock in early medieval Scotland is fragmentary and relies on a handful of well-studied faunal assemblages, with few from Pictland (north-east Scotland), an important ...and enigmatic group and latterly kingdom in Northern Britain that existed between the 3rd and 9th centuries AD. The assemblages that have been recovered and studied mainly occur at the limits of this territory, beyond the heartland of the Picts in the northern and eastern mainland. Recent archaeological excavations at three high-status sites in eastern Scotland have unexpectedly yielded well-preserved faunal remains providing a unique and long-awaited opportunity to explore further human-animal relationships and the use of animals in Pictish society. This paper presents new data from the initial study of these assemblages. It discusses the implications in terms of animal economy in Pictland, the potential of these sites to yield larger faunal assemblages and the directions of future research. Results show that cattle were a pivotal element of the economy, playing a multi-faceted role (beef and secondary products), pigs ranked second in frequency which likely reflects the high status of these sites and sheep appear as a marginal resource and were primarily raised for consumption. Results also suggest that these sites may have operated within an integrated network rather than functioning solely as self-sufficient entities.
Dunnicaer, Aberdeenshire, a now isolated sea stack, is the findspot of five Pictish symbol stones discovered in the nineteenth century. Excavations from 2015 to 2017 have revealed a Roman Iron Age ...promontory fort, providing insights into the development of fortified settlement in north-east Scotland, with fortified sites being a key feature of first millennium AD elite practice in this region. The presence of rare and unusual finds indicates contact with the Roman world to the south and changes in the character of settlement as evidenced at Dunnicaer indicate broader transitions in the later Roman Iron Age native society. The archaeological sequence at Dunnicaer sheds new light on the adoption of non-roundhouse styles of architecture in first millennium AD Scotland and provides important evidence for the dating of the Pictish symbol tradition. A consideration of the impacts of coastal erosion on promontories of this nature suggests these are amongst the most threatened archaeological sites.
Display omitted
•We reconstructed in detail the habitats of hunter-gatherer-fishers.•Late Upper Palaeolithic groups spent time on active gravel bars of the River Dee in Scotland.•Mesolithic groups ...occupied the floodplain, attracted to riverine resources.•The floodplain became increasingly dry and wooded through channel incision.
The rich resources of river valleys provided a focus for much Mesolithic hunter-gatherer-fisher activities across Europe. In Scotland there is one notable concentration of lithic evidence for this, at several locations along the River Dee in Aberdeenshire, but the environmental context of these sites has, to date, been poorly understood. Here we present evidence from excavation, repeated field-walking, flint typology, geomorphological mapping, sedimentology, pollen analysis, AMS 14C dating, OSL profiling and dating to understand the postglacial evolution of the terrace surface at the largest concentration of lithics along the River Dee, at Nethermills of Crathes. The aim was to understand in detail the environment and landscape dynamics of the site, to define whether occupation was on the active valley floor or on a terrace above the river, and whether fluvial processes had a role in site formation processes. We conclude that occupation was on a dry wooded surface, the active channel having incised below this, though to an unknown depth, and that although major floods have swept the terrace surface, the present distribution of lithics is probably largely the original distribution.
Coastal shell middens represent a well-known element of the archaeological record of island and coastal regions across the world and shellfish have been an important resource for subsistence since ...the mid Holocene. However, the factors that influence shellfishing remain poorly understood and in many regions investigations into the role of shellfish gathering often have remained focused on prehistoric examples to the detriment of shell middens of later dates. This article reports on the emerging evidence for large-scale exploitation of shellfish during a hitherto understudied period for shell midden archaeology in northwest Europe: the first millennium AD. The article includes a review of a series of previously unknown large mussel-dominated middens in eastern Scotland, an outline of their chronology and character, including Bayesian modeling of dates, and a synthesis of the emerging evidence for shellfish gathering in northwest Europe during the first millennium AD. The research represents the first investigation of large-scale early Medieval middens in Britain and the first review of their international parallels and the important new information they can provide for the early Medieval economy.
For northern Britain the topic of early medieval hilltop settlements is very pertinent as hilltop and enclosed settlements of a variety of forms are one of the few settlement types known in the ...latter half of the first millennium AD. During the first millennium AD, the geographical area of modern Scotland was partly subsumed within the Roman Empire for periods in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, but thereafter contact with the Roman world was through raiding, trading and diplomatic relationships (Hunter 2007). During the Roman Iron Age, very few hilltop settlements are known (though coastal promontory forts are – see
The land before symbol stones Gondek, Meggen; Noble, Gordon; Ramsay, Susan ...
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,
11/2016, Letnik:
145
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This article outlines the results of two related but distinct aspects of fieldwork: a geophysical survey of the Rhynie cropmark complex and a small targeted excavation conducted in 2005–6, which are ...both part of the Rhynie Environs Archaeological Project (REAP). The geophysical surveys included a substantial gradiometer and a smaller resistivity survey that aimed to characterise and explore the extent and survival of archaeology around the Craw Stane Pictish symbol stone (NJ42NE 35) and two other symbol stone findspots. The results showed several discrete anomalies; one of these was targeted by a small-scale excavation and proved to be a burnt Middle Bronze Age timber structure. This article describes the geophysical survey results and the excavation of the MBA structure and sets both within their landscape context.
Kinneddar Noble, Gordon; Cruikshanks, Gemma; Dunbar, Lindsay ...
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,
11/2019, Letnik:
148
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The early Christian sculpture from Kinneddar has long been noted as a major assemblage. New survey work by the University of Aberdeen and AOC Archaeology has identified a large vallum enclosure ...around the site that was renewed on at least one occasion. The vallum enclosures surrounded an area of up to 8.6ha, and the groundplan presents striking resemblances to other major ecclesiastical sites, particularly Iona. Evaluative excavations instigated through research- and development-led projects have provided an outline chronology for the vallum enclosures, identified an additional annexe and has located settlement features inside the enclosures. Radiocarbon dating suggests activity as early as the late 6th century with the vallum likely to date to the 7th or 8th century. This article sets out the evidence from the site and discusses Kinneddar in relation to other likely major ecclesiastical sites in northern Pictland and its wider early medieval Insular context.
In this paper we explore the intertwined issues of improvement and community relations within the context of the Colony site, a nineteenth-century informal settlement in Scotland best known through ...caricatures of the poor and stereotypes of rural living. Drawing on a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research framework, a collaborative initiative involving academics and community researchers has begun rediscovering and rethinking the history of the Colony. Our investigations have established a rich and unexpected tapestry of life that played out at multiple scales of analysis according to a variety of issues. The settlement's rise and fall was shaped by wider improvement processes impacting parts of Europe and beyond, but it is also an example of how outside influences were adopted locally, resisted and adapted; material conditions that played directly into the way community relations were themselves constituted. The lessons learned have implications for the archaeology of improvement and the study of informal communities on a global scale.
PDF
