Life is the Pits! Ritual, Refuse and Mesolithic–Neolithic Settlement Traditions in North-east Scotland

An exploration of the Mesolithic – Neolithic transition in North-east Scotland, with a particular focus on pit sites. The interpretation and chronology of pits plays a major role in the discussion, with new discoveries such as Kintore integrated with re-evaluation of older excavated sites. In particular, the long-term occupation site of Nethermills, the excavation report for which has as of yet not published, is discussed. Mesolithic pit evidence in the area and a detailed chronology of all pit discoveries in Aberdeenshire are presented. Broader reflection follows on the ways that we make sense of pits, as well as discussion on issues related to continuity and change between the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods.

Making Memories, Making Monuments: Changing Understandings of Henges in Prehistory and the Present

This paper offers a fresh insight into three of Scotland’s most complex henge monuments, based on a critical analysis of the term henge. The late Neolithic circular earthwork enclosures have undergone re-evaluation in Scotland as Early Bronze Age dates for some sites have emerged since the 1990s, and the author draws on the long-term nature of these monuments to explore what came before the earthworks. Case-study sites are Cairnpapple Hill, North Mains and Forteviot henge 1. Each is explored in terms of the centuries of re-use of the space for activities such as ceremony, deposition, fire-setting and monument construction, and viewed through a framework of social memory and commemoration,

Pathways to Ancestral Worlds: Mortuary Practice in the Irish Neolithic

This paper offers an overview and review of the evidence for mortuary practice in Ireland in the Late Neolithic period. Assumptions about the chronological relationship between cremation and inhumation are made, and these two categories are also challenged. The use of cremation as a practice in relation to passage graves and other megalithic tombs is explored for instance. The evidence is arranged chronologically, and this is followed by some discussion about what modern cremation activities can tell us about cremation in the Neolithic. Broader geographical conclusions are drawn in this significant and detailed review of burial practice in the Irish Neolithic.

‘Very real shared traditions’? Thinking about Similarity and Difference in the Construction and Use of Clyde Cairns in the Western Scottish Neolithic

In this paper, evidence for Neolithic activity in the western mainland of Scotland is explored, with a particular emphasis on megalithic monumentality and the archaeology of Argyll. This is a much under-studied area, and as the author notes, has as much if not more in common with the Neolithic or Ireland than of eastern Scotland. The paper draws on the author’s extensive fieldwork in the area including work on Bargrennan tombs and excavations at Blasthill. Monumentality, material culture and other aspects of Neolithic life in the western fringes of Scotland are explored in this important contribution to Neolithic studies in the Irish Sea zone.

On Ancient Farms: A Survey of Neolithic Potentially Domestic Locations in Lowland Scotland

This paper offers a review of all evidence for Neolithic settlement in mainland Scotland. This work builds on a list of possible domestic sites compiled by Gordon Barclay in the 1990s. An overview and history of the study of Neolithic settlement in Scotland is presented as context. There follows a discussion of the evidence divided into categories timber halls, rectangular buildings, round and circular buildings, four-post structures and pits. The evidence is synthesised and observations made about what this tells us about settlement patterns and mobility in Scotland’s Neolithic, and how this changed through time.

Neolithic Pasts, Neolithic Futures: The Contemporary Socio-politics of Prehistoric Landscapes

The ways that we understand the Neolithic period in Scotland are often shaped by the study of certain areas. In this paper, the significance of the designation of areas of Orkney in the 1990s as the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site is reviewed. The impact this has had on other aspects of Scotland’s Neolithic is explored. The World Heritage Site, and overlaps with a National Scenic Area, are also explored, with lessons learned from this unique synergy explored.

Who Were These People? A Sideways View and a Non-answer of Political Proportions

This paper is a review of a broad range of evidence for burial practice in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain. The author asks the difficult question – who were these people – in relation to the nameless dead found during excavations. A broad range of evidence is reviewed, including inhumations, cremations and conjoined bodies, and the fixed lines between these categories are questioned. The use of modern concepts such as ‘burial’ are also queried. Set within a chronological framework, this paper offers a challenging and fresh approach to archaeological understandings and interpretations of burial practice.

Pursuing the Penumbral: The Deposition of Beaker Pottery at Neolithic and Ceremonial Monuments in Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Scotland

This is a comprehensive review of all instances of the discovery of Beaker pottery in Neolithic contexts. A brief history of the study of this phenomenon is presented. This is followed by an analysis of the forms of Beaker found in contexts as varied as chambered tombs, henge monument ditches and cursus monument interiors. Stylistic traits and deposition context are explored in some detail, and explanations for this phenomenon discussed. The paper concludes with a comprehensive appendix listing all Beakers found in Neolithic contexts in Scotland.

The Neolithic Pottery from Balfarg/Balbirnie Revisited

This paper is an authorative and fresh interpretation of the large assemblage of prehistoric pottery that was found at the excavations of Balfarg Riding School in Fife, by Gordon Barclay in the early 1980s. Reviewing past approaches, the author then revisits the Carinated Bowl, Impressed Ware and Grooved Ware Neolthic pottery found on the site. This re-evaluation is set within a new chronological context for the Balfarg monuments, and more broadly within contemporary understandings of the development of Neolithic pottery in lowland eastern Scotland.

Seeing the Wood in the Trees: The Timber Monuments of Neolithic Scotland

This paper presents an overview of evidence for timber monument in Scotland’s Neolithic, most of which have been found as cropmarks in the lowlands. The reviews looks at the impact of aerial survey (1976 onwards) and developer-funded excavations since the 1980s on this dataset, which has greatly expanded. Site categories discussed include timber cursus monuments, timber halls, mortuary structures, timber circles, palisaded enclosures and assorted miscellaneous sites. The author combines cropmark evidence, excavation results, radiocarbon dates and site visits to offering a fresh interpretation of this large group of monuments. They are also set within their broader social context.