Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Glasgow, 2003. / Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow, 2003. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

The research reported here arose from perceived lacunae regarding archaeological understanding of mesolithic settlement in eastern Scotland. Historically this area, for a number of reasons, has seen 1ittle archaeological research in comparison to the maritime west of the country, a bias that requires redressing. The characteristics, problems and potentials of available data are assembled for the first time and critically assessed. Discussion of methodologies appropriate to this material is developed, and small-scale fieldwork undertaken within this framework presented. Any introduction of a new range of data is, in part, a construction of that data, and the particular interpretative and thematic stresses of the thesis arise from the argument that narratives of gatherer-hunter communities in the past have objectified those groups, consequently hindering comprehension of them. To this end an approach to a social archaeology of the mesolithic is developed, stressing the importance of examining skills and routines that, through thei; extension in particular contexts, may have structured an agent's experience of landscapes in the past. In order to flesh out these arguments and introduce the material evidence in more detail, a series of overlapping case studies is developed exploring in turn, the relationships between mesolithic folk and woodlands, the significance of salmon fishing, the inhabitation of the coast, and stone tool procurement, production and discard. These varied narratives incorporate the results of a range of small-scale desktop projects and fieldwork designed to test the potential of this approach to a social archaeology of the period. Whilst these studies are at present fragmentary, it is contended that they demonstrate that accounts of gatherer-hunter communities in the east of Scotland can aspire to a meaningful level of engagement with human lives in the past. The project scholarship was funded by Historic Scotland.

The Monuments at Risk Survey 1995 (MARS) outlined rates and causes of identified monument loss in England, showing that 16% of recorded monuments had been completely destroyed by 1995, and that 95% of surviving monuments in England had suffered partial destruction. Hitherto, no equivalent research has been undertaken in Scotland. Using a 17% random stratified sample of 779 field monuments surviving in 1850 within a study area encompassing much of the local authority areas of Perth and Kinross, Fife and Angus, the present research has analysed the distribution and quantified loss of archaeological monuments since 1850 in relation to a number of variables including land use, Land Capability for Agriculture, elevation, local authority area, monument period and material construction. Results show that monument distribution within the study area varies most noticeably according to land use and elevation. The highest densities of extant monuments are found in semi-natural woodland (17.2 extant sample monuments per 100km2) and non-intensive land uses such as unimproved grazing and moorland (13.8 extant sample monuments per 100km2). The lowest density of extant monuments is found in arable and improved pasture (4.5 extant sample monuments per 100km2), although this is offset by a recorded density of 11.5 cropmark sample monuments per 100km2. By elevation, monument densities are highest below 100m OD (24.4 monuments per 100km2) and between 250m OD and 400m OD (21 monuments per 100 km2)with a pronounced paucity of recorded monuments between 100m OD and 200m OD, particularly on improved and arable land. For each sample monument, a condition history has been constructed through a desk-based study using data from the National Monuments Record of Scotland. This desk-based study has recorded the greatest causes of monument loss since 1850 as unknown causes (28% of loss), archaeological excavation (24% of loss), farming (15% of loss) and development (11% of loss). The monument condition histories created through the desk-based study have then been augmented and calibrated for a subsample of 258 monuments by means of an accuracy assessment, using information from vertical and oblique aerial photographs, survey reports from Historic Scotland Monument Wardens and a programme of field survey. Using these additional data sources, the accuracy assessment has identified the largest causes of monument loss within the study area since 1850 as forestry (31% of loss), farming (28% of loss) and development (12% of loss). Analysis shows that among monuments extant in 1850, a minimum of 38% have been reduced in extent, with at least 5% destroyed. Loss has been greatest among monuments found in arable and improved land (39% reduced, 27% destroyed), forestry (79% reduced, 9% destroyed) and developed land (63% reduced, 27% destroyed), and lowest among monuments found in permanent pasture (91% undamaged), semi-natural woodland (75% undamaged) and rough grazing and moorland (85% undamaged). Although the use of a desk-based study and accuracy assessment has proved successful in identifying trends in the loss of visible monuments, it has been necessary to employ alternative methods by which to assess damage at buried monuments represented by cropmarks. To this end, a programme of excavation, topographic survey and soil depth recording has been undertaken at five locations in Perth and Kinross. Analysis of the results from this programme of excavation and survey has identified statistically significant relationships between land surface curvature and topsoil depth at three of the five sites examined, enabling the mapping at site scale of areas which are likely to have been subject to greatest agricultural damage. Extrapolating from these site-specific maps, it has been possible to map probable damage and risk to cropmark monuments at a regional scale. Although the validity of this regional scale mapping has been limited by the 25m cell size of the digital terrain model on which it has been based, the potential of such a technique in enabling a rapid preliminary assessment of damage and risk to cropmark monuments has been demonstrated.

"21st December 2001" / Includes bibliographical references / Various paging : ill. (some col.), maps, plates ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Physics and Mathematical Physics and Centre for European Studies and General Linguistics, 2003