T I M B ER, STONE, E A R T H A N D FI R E N E O L I T H I C S C O T L A N D TI MBER, STONE, E ARTH A ND FIR E This account of Scotland’s Neolithic period – from its earliest traces around 4000 BC to the transformation of Neolithic society in the Early Bronze Age 1,500 years later – synthesises and interprets excavations and research conducted over the last century and more. It brings together all the available evidence essential to understanding the first farming communities of Scotland. And, using a range of social theory, the author provides a long-term and regionally based interpretation of the period, suggesting new directions in the study of the Neolithic. After outlining the chronology and material culture of the Neolithic in Europe, Gordon Noble considers its origins in Scotland. He suggests that differences in the nature of the Mesolithic– Neolithic transition explain why the Earlier Neolithic in Scotland is characterised by regionally distinct monumental traditions and, further, that these reflect different conceptions of the world. He uses a longer-term perspective to examine the nature of monumental landscapes in the Later Neolithic, and to consider how Neolithic society as a whole was created and maintained through interactions at places in the landscape where large-scale monuments were built. He ends by considering how the Neolithic was transformed in the Early Bronze Age through the manipulation and re-use of the material remains of the past. A comprehensive and up-to-date account of the Scottish Neolithic, this book is essential reading for all those interested in the field. Gordon Noble holds a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow. GORDON NOBLE N E O L I T H I C S C O T L A N D G O R D O N NOBLE Front cover image (main): Fintray Cursus © Aberdeenshire Archaeology Service Cover design and cover photo (top) of Hill of Tarvit: Cathy Sprent Edinburgh University Press 22 George Square Edinburgh EH8 9LF www.eup.ed.ac.uk ISBN 0 7486 233 8 8 N E O L I T H I C S C O T L A N D TIMBER, STONE, EARTH AND FIRE G ORDO N N O BL E EDINBURGH ‘Fresh and exciting … required reading for any archaeologist.’ Richard Bradley, Professor of Archaeology, Reading University ‘Highly unusual in providing a sophisticated interpretative account of a wide range of material for the Scottish Neolithic; perhaps more important is its focus on materiality which, to my mind, is the essential future route of Neolithic studies.’ Dr Colin Richards, University of Manchester N S [...]... monuments and material culture related to their wider distributions and contexts Scotland itself is a country of varying topography, landscape and climate and different areas of Scotland have distinct characters that reflect contrasting relationships with the land and sea Scotland is at the junction of a number of seaways: the Irish Sea, the Atlantic and the North Sea Hence, the area of Scotland has always... settlement today is mainly on the coastal fringes and on the islands The land of Scotland is of a higher average elevation than any other area in the British Isles, consequently low-lying land in Scotland is restricted and in mainland Scotland S N 11 N F 1.3 Areas and regions mentioned in the text N F 1.4 The geographical zones of Scotland 12 N S the largest tracts... transition in eastern and western Scotland Chapter 2 acts as a further introduction to the archaeology and geography of Scotland In particular it develops the distinction between Atlantic Scotland in the I 3 west, made up of a pattern of islands, and eastern, lowland Scotland This distinction is crucial to the next three chapters, where the major regional traditions of Earlier Neolithic monuments... In southern Scotland oak, elm and hazel were the main woodland species, whereas in northeast Scotland, birch and hazel trees were the main constituents with only a small proportion of oak and elm In the west and north, woodland was less dense in composition with open stands of birch and hazel; the more recent colonisers of oak and elm made little impact on these areas All of these woodlands would have... funerary remains are more common at stone circles than timber sites (Parker Pearson and Ramilisonina 1998) In Scotland timber circles tend to be found more commonly in the east of Scotland than in the west, where stone circles dominate, but excavation has shown that many stone circles overlie timber circles and timber circles in the east may have been superseded by stone (Haggarty 1991; Mercer 1977–8;... coasts of Dumfries and Galloway, in the Borders around the Tweed river, and in Aberdeenshire and Caithness This is not to say that settlement and agriculture was restricted to these areas Today the central lowlands are the most productive areas for agriculture in Scotland, but in the past the differences between the coastal areas of western Scotland and the islands, and the eastern lowlands may not have... in which the Neolithic was introduced to these areas and its subsequent development Scotland is split into a variety of administrative, historical and political areas to which reference will be made in the text The main regions and areas mentioned in the text are shown in Figure 1.3 Scotland can be divided into three main geographical zones: the Highlands and Islands, the Southern Uplands and the Central... number of pre-elm decline and hence possibly pre -Neolithic instances, but the interpretations and identifications of this are not always secure Earlier Neolithic clearance of woodland may have been most effective in the north and west where there was only light woodland in the first instance and soon after the beginnings of the Neolithic some of the islands and northern areas of Scotland may have been relatively... the Cheviot Hills, a range of uplands that run northeast to southwest across northern England That is not to say that Scotland was a recognisably discrete and bounded area of the Neolithic world As we shall see in the following chapters, the area that is now Scotland was always connected to its neighbours, England, Ireland and Wales, and at times to the European mainland, through a complex network of... Ireland and across England and Wales to the south (Malone 2001: fig 124) Palisaded enclosures were continuous barriers of timbers arranged in circular or oval shapes, often enclosing very large areas These are a relatively recently recognised element of the Later Neolithic and have been identified in southern Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland (Gibson 2002) With a few exceptions many of these Later Neolithic . Sprent Edinburgh University Press 22 George Square Edinburgh EH8 9LF www.eup.ed.ac.uk ISBN 0 7486 233 8 8 N E O L I T H I C S C O T L A N D TIMBER, STONE, EARTH AND FIRE G ORDO N N O BL E EDINBURGH ‘Fresh. F Gordon Noble Edinburgh University Press © Gordon Noble, 2006 Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in Minion by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Manchester and printed and bound. frontier’ 8 1.2 Scotland in Europe 10 1.3 Areas and regions mentioned in the text 11 1.4 The geographical zones of Scotland 11 1.5 The composition of the woodland in Earlier Neolithic Scotland 13 1.6