Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Glasgow, 2008. / Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, Departments of Archaeology and History, University of Glasgow, 2008. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

Background: Despite clinical importance and frequent occurrence of sinus disease, little is known about the size of paranasal sinuses and their communication in ponies and small horses. To examine the shape and volume of the paranasal sinuses and evaluate the sinonasal communication, three-dimensional (3D) reconstructions of computed tomography (CT) datasets of 12 healthy adult Shetland ponies were performed and analysed. Linear measurements of head length and width were taken. Using semi-automatic segmentation, 3D-models of all sinus compartments were created. Volumetric measurement of the seven sinus compartments were conducted and statistical analysis was performed. Sinus volumes were compared between the left and right sinuses and the relation to age and head size was evaluated. Results: Structure and shape of the paranasal sinus system in Shetland ponies was similar to that of large horses. All seven sinus compartments on each side of the head were identified (rostral maxillary sinus, ventral conchal sinus, caudal maxillary sinus, dorsal conchal sinus, middle conchal sinus, frontal sinus, sphenopalatine sinus). The existence of a bilateral cranial and a caudal system formed by a maxillary septum was visible in all 12 individuals. The volumetric sizes of the left and right sinuses did not differ significantly (p > 0.05). A positive correlation between the size of the paranasal sinuses and the head length was shown. A relation between sinus volumes and age could not be proved in adult ponies aged > six years. Communication between single sinus compartments was identified. Furthermore, communication with the nasal cavity over the nasomaxillary aperture (Apertura nasomaxillaris) and a common sinonasal channel (Canalis sinunasalis communis) as well as its splitting up into a rostral and a caudolateral channel could be seen. Examination of the sinonasal communication was challenging and only a descriptive evaluation was possible. Conclusions: Our findings concerning the size, shape and volumetric dimensions of Shetland pony CT images could help improve CT interpretation of abnormal clinical cases as well as aiding clinicians to develop and select appropriate instruments for medical inspection and treatments.

An area of Shetland is examined in order to identify how Iron Age settlements might have related to each other. The study area contains two brochs. An inter-disciplinary approach is used to identify evidence for other Iron Age settlements and the information is presented as a model illustrating the pattern of settlement at different points during the Iron Age. A distinction is drawn between locations containing field archaeology and locations where occupation is predicted on the basis of evidence such as soil quality or place name. The whole model is then examined in order to identify patterns which may suggest changing relationships between settlements and groups of settlements, and the trends and influences behind these. Next an appraisal is made of the settlements¿ relative status and authority during Shetland¿s Early, Middle and Late Iron Age. By looking at the whole landscape through time - before, during and after the Iron Age ¿ the brochs are set in a wider chronological context which takes into account the changing role that these highly visible monuments may have played as socio-economic focal points in a developing landscape. The outcome reveals complexity. Initially the brochs appear to be a focus of settlement patterns but by the end of the Late Iron Age they are rivalled by a non-broch area which shows signs of heightened Pictish influence. Elsewhere in Shetland at this period there is retrenchment to broch-settlements, raising the question of how far developments in the study area are unique to that location.

Food is the foundation upon which societies are built. It is a means of survival, a source of wealth and prosperity and can be used as a means of social display. In Iron Age Atlantic Scotland, a wide range of food resources were open to exploitation. Among these, barley is likely to have been an important backbone to the system. Far from being at the mercy of the elements, the Iron Age population of Atlantic Scotland was able to extract surpluses of food from the landscape which could be manipulated for social, political and economic gain. One means through which this could be achieved is feasting, a practice considered significant elsewhere in the Iron Age. With such ideas at its core, this thesis examines the main arenas for consumption events in Iron Age Atlantic Scotland (dwellings) in detail, considering also the underpinnings of the system in terms of food production and accumulation, in particular the barley crop. The distribution of food processing and preparation between a dwelling and its associated ancillary buildings at Old Scatness provides insights into the organisation of life on the settlement.

The research contained in these papers embodies both results from direct archaeological investigation and also the development of techniques (geophysical, chronological and geoarchaeological) in order to understand long-term settlements and their associated landscapes in Orkney and Shetland. Central to this research has been the study of soil management strategies of arable plots surrounding settlements from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. It is argued that this arable system provides higher yields in marginal locations. The ability to enhance yield in good years and to store surplus can mitigate against shortage. Control and storage of this surplus is seen as one catalyst for the economic power of elite groups over their underlying or ¿client¿ population. The emergence of a social elite in the Iron Age, building brochs and other substantial roundhouses of near broch proportions, is seen as being linked to the control of resources. Evidence at the site of Old Scatness indicated that there was a continuity of wealth and power from the Middle Iron Age through the Pictish period, before the appearance of the Vikings produced a break in the archaeological record. The Viking period saw a break in building traditions, the introduction of new artefacts and changes in farming and fishing strategies. Each of the papers represents a contribution that builds on these themes.

No / In this paper, we illustrate the ways in which Bayesian statistical techniques may be used to enhance chronological resolution when applied to a series of OSL sediment dates. Such application can achieve an optimal chronological model by incorporating stratigraphic and age information. The application to luminescence data is not straightforward owing to the sources of uncertainty in each date, and here we present one solution to overcoming these difficulties, and introduce the concept of "unshared systematic" errors. Using OSL sediment dates from the site of Old Scatness Broch, Shetland Isles, UK, many measured with a high degree of precision, we illustrate some of the ways in which Bayesian techniques may be applied, as a tool for assessing systematic errors when combined with independent chronological information, and to determine the optimum chronological information for specific events and contexts. We provide a detailed procedure for the application of Bayesian methods to OSL dates using the widely available radiocarbon calibration programme OxCal.

No / This paper presents new chronological data applied to the problem of providing a date for the construction of a prehistoric building, with a case study from the Old Scatness Broch, Shetland. The innovative methodology employed utilises the combination of radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates with the archaeological information, which includes the stratigraphic relationships of sampled deposits, context information, and evidence relating to the formation of the deposit. This paper discusses the scientific validity of the dates produced, and the advantages that the methodology employed at this site offers for archaeological interpretation. The combined dating evidence suggests that the broch at Old Scatness is earlier than the conventionally accepted dates for broch construction. More broadly it shows the value of integration of the specialists at the planning stages of the excavation. The application of a Bayesian statistical model to the sequences of dates allowed investigation of the robustness of the dates within the stratigraphic sequences, as well as increasing the resolution of the resulting chronology. In addition, the value of utilising multiple dating techniques on the same deposit was demonstrated, as this allowed different dated events to be directly compared as well as issues relating to the formation of the sampled deposit. This in turn impacted on the chronological significance of the resulting dating evidence, and therefore the confidence that could be placed in the results.

No / he two archipelagos of Orkney and Shetland, which form the Northern Isles of Britain, are an active focus of archaeological research. The rich Neolithic heritage of Orkney has been acknowledged by the granting of World Heritage status. Although set in both a biogeographically peripheral position and within what may be considered to be marginal landscapes, these North Atlantic islands have a large number of settlement sites with long occupational sequences, often stretching from the Neolithic to the Late Iron Age or into the Norse period. The mixed paleoeconomic strategy presented by three of these settlements—Tofts Ness, Sanday, Orkney (excavated 1985–1988); the Iron Age sequences at Old Scatness, Shetland (excavated 1995–2006); and Late Neolithic and Bronze Age cultivated middens from Jarlshof, Shetland (investigated in 2004)—provide the core of the evidence discussed within this paper (the radiocarbon chronologies for the key sequences from these three sites are provided as Appendix 1). The role of the prehistoric paleoeconomy is argued to be of central importance in the longevity of these settlements. In particular, barley production is evidenced on all three sites by the plant macrofossils and by the human investment in the creation and management of manured soils, providing an infield area around the settlement. This paper focuses on the identification of these anthropogenic soils in the archaeological record. The investment in and management of these arable soils provides clear evidence for resource creation on all three sites. It is argued that these soils were a crucial resource that was necessary to support intensive barley cultivation. The intensive management implied by the presence of these soils is seen as a catalyst for sedentary living and sustainability within a marginal landscape. The evidence also demonstrates the continuity of agricultural practice from the Neolithic to the Iron Age together with the social dynamics that such a practice generates. This paper is in two parts: the first section examines in detail the evidence for the presence of anthropogenic soils and the mixed economic strategies for the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age presented by the evidence from Tofts Ness and Jarlshof. The evidence for the continuity of this intensive strategy of soil management is seen from the later evidence of the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age at Tofts Ness and the Middle Iron Age evidence at Old Scatness. The second part of the paper examines the importance of these soils as an inherited resource within the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age paleoeconomic system. Two models are presented. The first examines the cyclic importance of human creation and maintenance of small arable plots to high barley production yields and therefore to site viability, and the effect this has within a mixed resource system in providing settlement viability through time. The second explores the theoretical land and seascape that would provide this mixed resource base.

No / Stable isotope analysis has provided crucial new insights into dietary change at the Neolithic transition in north-west Europe, indicating an unexpectedly sudden and radical shift from marine to terrestrial resources in coastal and island locations. Investigations of early Neolithic skeletal material from Sumburgh on Shetland, at the far-flung margins of the Neolithic world, suggest that this general pattern may mask significant subtle detail. Analysis of juvenile dentine reveals the consumption of marine foods on an occasional basis. This suggests that marine foods may have been consumed as a crucial supplementary resource in times of famine, when the newly introduced cereal crops failed to cope with the demanding climate of Shetland. This isotopic evidence is consistent with the presence of marine food debris in contemporary middens. The occasional and contingent nature of marine food consumption underlines how, even on Shetland, the shift from marine to terrestrial diet was a key element in the Neolithic transition.

No / Brochs are monumental Iron Age (c.400–200 BC) drystone towers or roundhouses. They are only found in Scotland, particularly the Atlantic north and west. Whilst the structural layout of brochs has long been debated, few measured surveys have been conducted. Three significant broch sites form the tentative World Heritage site of “Mousa, Old Scatness and Jarlshof: the Zenith of Iron Age Shetland” (UNESCO in Mousa, Old Scatness and Jarlshof: the zenith of Iron Age Shetland, UNESCO (2019) Mousa, Old Scatness and Jarlshof: the zenith of Iron Age Shetland. http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5677. Accessed 9 Aug 2019). All three sites have undergone new surveys as part of a collaborative doctoral partnership research project. This chapter presents a diachronic perspective using digital documentation techniques to detect stone displacement and weathering at the site of Old Scatness using historic imagery, including photographs from the Old Scatness excavations (1995–2006) and regular condition monitoring undertaken by Shetland Amenity Trust to undertake retrospective digital structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry. Whilst point clouds and 3D meshes were successfully generated from low-resolution digital images, analogue film transparencies without metadata could not produce accurate geospatial data without manually trying to extant reference data. It was possible to detect displacements in stonework over time by comparing two meshes together and measuring the distances between vertex point pairs. The reliability and accuracy of these results were dependent on how well pairs of meshes could be aligned.