Archaeology involves creating meaningful narratives of prehistoric societies, using only the remains of their material culture. This study focuses on Neolithic rock-art in two very different regions – Jämtland (Northern Sweden) and Cumbria (North West England) – seeking to explore, directly, the ‘meaningfulness’ of this art. During the Neolithic period in Britain (c. 4000-2400 BC) and Northern Sweden (c. 4000-1800 BC), rocky outcrops were elaborated either by pecking abstract designs (Britain) or by carving and painting animal and human representations (Northern Sweden). Prehistoric rock-art in Britain and Scandinavia is usually understood and made ‘meaningful’ in relation to one, or a combination of, methodological approaches: it may be understood as part of the landscape (experienced through the human body (phenomenology)), or given meaning in light of ethnographic evidence. All of these approaches, however, ignore the subtle ways in which the rock-art itself was structured. The study, presented here, employed three methodological approaches in order to attempt to understand rock-art in a new and, arguably, more meaningful way. Firstly, a structure- based approach involved establishing the primary methods that the carvers used to create meaningful rock-art narratives. Secondly, a discourse- based approach was used to uncover how these basic design forms were articulated, to allow communication and dialogue of Neolithic ideas into the sphere of social practice (discourse being an attempt to identify themes within the rock-art narratives, which act as intermediaries between structure and agency). Finally, the third agency- based approach blends structure with discourse (agency allowed meaningful social action to occur during the Neolithic). The structure-based approach in Cumbria revealed that the art of the central fells region was based on the manipulation of natural and cultural cups or circles into linear patterns. This is in contrast with the approach in eastern Cumbria, where the reverse was found- with lines being manipulated into circular shapes. In Jämtland, the fundamental structure of the art was based on the division of elk into both male/female and moving/stationary categories. The results of the discourse methodology revealed that three themes dictated the style of rock-art carvings during the Neolithic, in both Cumbria and Jämtland; naturalistic, stylised and abstract. The agency approach concluded that the visual statements made using the rock-art were examples of agents’ changing relationship with the natural world and the resources it contained- especially the quarrying of stone for axes. Metaphorically, it is argued that the three changing discourses of rock-art were a reflection of the changing relationship people had with the quarrying of stone and its exchange. One of the main implications of this research is the finding that there is still a place for investigating rock-art and material/visual culture. Furthermore, using the methodological approach of this research, we are in a position to explore some of the deeper dimensions of visual culture, and its relationship to social structure and agency, in the Neolithic.

Tracing the treatment of the body before, during and after cremation, this thesis aims to reconstruct and theorise the mortuary rituals associated with urned cremation burial in Bronze Age Scotland. It is an attempt to bridge the gap between theoretical perspectives from funerary archaeology and up-to-date methods for understanding heat-related changes to bone from osteoarchaeology and forensic anthropology. As with other types of mortuary treatment, the physical aspects of cremation detected by osteological analysis are interconnected with the meaning and symbolism of the ritual. The research involved the osteological analysis of a sample of urned cremation burials from the collections of The National Museums of Scotland. The analysis aimed to estimate not only the age at death and sex of the remains, but also to investigate factors such as the number of individuals in an urn, the effectiveness of the cremation process, whether the bodies had been cremated as fresh corpses or dry bones, the position of the body on the pyre, the range of pyre goods and the selection of remains included in the urns. In total, 75 urned cremation burials from 50 sites were analysed, a significant addition to the corpus of osteologically analysed Bronze Age urned burials from the Scottish Mainland. The results suggested a significant discrepancy between how fleshed bodies and bodies which had been through the pyre were perceived. Whereas fresh corpses were not modified, the burnt remains could be extensively manipulated until their final deposition within the urn.

Hillforts have dominated interpretations of later prehistoric society, but these have been based on an uncritical acceptance of their military or symbolic role and a ‘big is best’ mentality. Using the exceptional archive from Broxmouth hillfort in East Lothian, the research presented in this thesis had the unique opportunity to examine the boundaries of that site in detail. Drawing on ideas that sites should not just be seen in their final form, episodes of enclosure creation, maintenance and abandonment are examined. Constructing a biography of Broxmouth has highlighted the relative infrequency of these creation events and how social relationships were intimately tied to the enclosure boundaries. These events are not isolated and investigating the contemporary landscape has shown that the coastal plain would have been densely settled, yet the bleak hills of the Lammermuirs appear to have been avoided. Mapping old routeways and pit alignments shows that this landscape may have been a draw for the practice of transhumance, primarily for sheep and cattle as demonstrated in the Broxmouth evidence. Combining GIS analyses with more experiential approaches, shows how some sites took advantage of the topographical surroundings and were instrumental in the practice of transhumance. Creation events at other sites also appear to be infrequent and examining further excavated sites in East Lothian has allowed the formation of a broad chronology of changing enclosure patterns. Contextualising Broxmouth has documented changes in how people interacted with their landscape, how social relationships were enacted and how these changed from the late Bronze Age, through to the Roman Iron Age.

This thesis focuses on the development of ceremonial landscapes of Neolithic and Bronze Age Scotland, along with exploring the concept of ceremonial complexes within Scotland by looking at the patterns of development and reuse of sites and locations of ceremonial and funerary monuments built during the Neolithic through the Bronze Age. In order to accomplish this, three major ceremonial landscapes within Scotland, the Fife, southern Perth and Kinross regions; the Kilmartin Valley; and the Orkney Islands, are used as case studies. This study was conducted using site reports from the various excavations within the three case study areas, as well as using environmental studies, land use and soil maps, and topographical maps in order to understand what motivated the Neolithic communities to construct their funeral and ceremonial monuments where they did, and why the Bronze Age people either continued to use these areas or abandon them. Further, the methods of using various maps, such as land use, soil, and topographical maps, in understanding the reasons prehistoric communities had for the placement of monuments within the landscape are assessed with a discussion of the differences and similarities in the location of earlier cursus monuments and later henges. Of the sites studied within the three case studies, the majority of the Neolithic sites were found to be located on or near good arable farming land, usually near either lochs/waterways or valleys, which would have been used as routeways for travel across the landscape. During the Bronze Age, the sites follow a similar pattern with many monuments placed on or near Neolithic sites; however, several monuments were built away from earlier ones and found to be constructed on land less suited to agriculture and marginal land. These findings are mirrored within the discussion of the cursus monuments and henges, with the Early Neolithic cursus monuments located along or near waterways on arable farming land, while the later henges sited away from the cursus monuments were built in marginal locations. The positioning of these monuments along such travel routes would have made these sites important markers in the landscape for the transportation of goods and people for trade, migration, and pilgrimage as well as establishing a claim of the surrounding land for the communities who built and used them.

This research examines the health of those living within the lowland, east coast region of Scotland from 500-1500 AD utilizing historical, archaeological, and skeletal material. Although the study area was a central part of medieval Scotland, it has not been the focus of any larger scale research into health, including any previous statistical analyses. This study presents the osteological analysis of skeletal remains of four medieval populations (385 individuals) from eastern, lowland Scotland: Ballumbie (N=197 individuals), Isle of May (N=58), St Andrews Library (N=72), and Whitefriars (N=58). Additionally, this research provides a contextualized discussion of the similarities and differences in health of these four lowland populations, focusing on the broad themes of location (rural/urban) and status (high/low). The four study populations are compared statistically through prevalence rates of disease. A compilation of disease prevalence rates for twenty-three other medieval Scottish populations was created to provide further contextualized comparisons of health. The discussion of health from the perspectives of location is framed within the context of access to health care, population density/pathogen load, diet, and sub-adult mortality. Discussions of status focus on differences in housing and diet between the upper and lower status individuals living in medieval society. The role of pilgrimage is explored for the Isle of May with respect to health, illness, and the treatment of the sick. The analysis of four medieval populations in the lowland, east coast region of Scotland illustrate that although they were close geographically, each population had unique aspects to their skeletal health due to differences in their location and status.

This thesis examines the evidence for iron production and use during the Scottish Iron Age, circa 800 BC to AD 800, and is the first attempt at synthesising this evidence for Scotland. The broad aim is to gain a better understanding of the development, organisation and scale of iron production throughout this period. Four regional case studies focussing on Orkney, Skye, the Lothians and the Moray Firth provide the opportunity to examine different aspects of this aim through analysing excavated ironworking debris, iron artefacts and their context. Proxy evidence is also examined, namely whetstones and toolmarks on bone/ antler assemblages, in order to fill in some of the gaps in the iron artefact record due to poor preservation or ancient recycling. Some 500kg of ironworking debris, over 1500 iron artefacts, around 200 whetstones and over 2000 worked bone/ antler artefacts from the four regions were examined. The regional case studies are followed by a Scotland-wide discussion will also place the Scottish evidence within its wider context. The research shows rare, sporadic early evidence for iron production and use from around 800BC in Scotland, with production sites and iron artefact assemblages noticeably increasing from around 400BC. The Moray Firth area provides evidence of several intensive ironworking sites, while the Lothians have produced scant evidence, demonstrating regional variation in iron production across Scotland. The long settlement sequences of Orkney allow chronological variations to be examined, revealing changes in iron production organisation from the Middle to Late Iron Ages. Some of the earliest iron artefacts in Scotland, from a ritual cave site on Skye, provide the opportunity to examine structured deposition of iron, with similar depositional patterns identified across Scotland. The use of proxy evidence fleshes out the picture, revealing common use of tools such as iron saws, which rarely survive archaeologically.

No description available.

The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition is seen as an important research focus and key to understanding issues surrounding Neanderthal and modern human interactions. Because of this focus upon human type transitional industries without associated human fossil evidence have been marginalised within the debate. This perspective can be termed etic, looking at overall patterns and millennial timescales to answer ‘big’ questions. In contrast my research could be termed emic, using a small collection of ‘transitional’ stone tools to explore the perspective of the producers and users. Human type is not considered relevant here. This approach has allowed a shift in scale; from millennial and pan-European to seasonal and the uplands that now constitute Britain. To explore this emic perspective experimental production has been used to make material a manufacturing process. Metrical, formal and typological analysis has been applied to the archaeological type fossil corpus to more fully comprehend variability. Together these approaches have been used to construct a nuanced and comprehensive châine operatoire model for the industry. This model allowed comparative analysis to derive new understandings from old and new archaeological collections from three sites. Resultant material and behavioural patterns have been interpreted within their particular landscape and general faunal contexts. Emergent themes have been integrated into a seasonal structure to create the desired emic narrative. This process has revealed a maintainable, repairable and adaptable technology used to manage the predictable unpredictability associated with the hunting of migrating large fauna through a long summer season and in uplands of known and unknown stone resources.

By the re-evaluation of one specific artefact class - the Scottish examples of tanged points, the intrinsic qualities of this artefacts form, context and is use is employed to establish an enhanced sense of regional variability within early Scottish archaeology. A methodology for tanged point identification is determined and enacted to demonstrate that the existing examples of Scottish tanged points do not represent a single, coherent, tanged point tradition in this region. Variability is evident and can be translated, in terms of human behaviour, to suggest at least three separate antecedents to early activity in Scotland. Of specific focus is a hitherto unrecognized line of activity (or influence) during the Mesolithic - one originating from areas to the north/north-east of Scotland from the modern political construct of Scandinavia. In this spatial context, tanged point use extends into the Mesolithic, unlike counterparts in the northern territories of the European continent where tanged points are primarily discussed as late Palaeolithic, and to which Scottish tanged points have been traditionally compared. This 'northern' scenario thus provides an alternative reading of some examples of this material class in Scotland. The juxtaposition between marine and terrestrial lifestyles is key to this analysis. Acknowledging this in relation to a select sample of Scottish tanged points – those within the island context of Stronsay, a northern isle in the archipelago of Orkney, this specific set of tanged points is argued to comprise a new component within the tool kit of Mesolithic activity within this regionally specific context. The implications of this permits a more pluralised perspective of the nature and extents of early activity in Scotland, and a documents the significance of regional variability to understanding the range of potential influences, and identities, that may have enculturated the landscapes of Scotland during its earliest phases of prehistory.

This thesis examines topographical art depicting Scotland’s natural scenery and built environments, architecture, antiquities and signs of modern improvement, made during the period 1660 to 1820. It sets out to demonstrate that topography and topographical art was not exclusively antiquarian in nature, but ranged across various fields of learning and practice. It included the work of artists, geographers, cartographers, travel writers, poets, landscape gardeners, military surveyors, naturalists and historians who were concerned with representing the country’s varied, and often contentious, histories within an increasingly modernising present. The visual images that are considered here were forms of knowledge that found expression in drawings, paintings and engravings, elevations, views and plans. They were made on military surveys and picturesque tours, and were often intended to be included alongside written texts, both published and unpublished, frequently connecting with travels, tours, memoirs, essays and correspondence. It will also be argued that topography was a social practice, involving networks of artists, collectors, publishers and writers, who exchanged information in drawings and letters in a nationwide, and often increasingly commercial enterprise. This thesis will explore some of the strands of such a vast network of picture-making that existed in Scotland, and Britain, between 1660 and 1820, as visual images were circulated, copied, recycled and adapted, and topographical and antiquarian visual culture emerges as a complex, synoptic form of inquiry.