A Prehistoric Ford near Rough Castle, Falkirk

Hamilton, Jamie; Clarke, C. J. S.; Dunwell, Andrew; Tipping, Richard

doi:10.3366/saj.2001.23.2.91

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Unusually for regions of the British Isles heavily settled by Roman times, central Scottish rivers seem not to have been highly active in the Roman Iron Age, and their catchments seemingly not actively eroding. This interpretation is supported within a small anonymous stream valley descending to the River Carron east of Rough Castle (illus 2; Hamilton et al 2002), which showed peat with very little eroded mineral matter to have accumulated above a stone-lined ford after c 600 cal bc, probably through the Roman Iron Age. Lake basins provide other data sources on the intensity of soil erosion (Edwards & Whittington 2001).…”

Section: River Valleys and Geomorphic Activitymentioning

confidence: 85%

The landscape context of the Antonine Wall: a review of the literature

Tipping¹,

Tisdall²

2006

PSAS

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The landscape, environmental and land use changes before, during and after Antonine occupation are examined for the region of central Scotland between the Southern Uplands and the Grampian Highlands, principally from the published literature. The purpose is to synthesize and make available a range of new palaeoenvironmental data, to evaluate critically these new data-sets, to search for significant shifts in landscape or land use and to characterize their timings and effects, thus placing the Antonine occupation in a coherent landscape context. It is established that economic expansion in the region occurred in the later Iron Age, demonstrably before Roman military occupation. This expansion developed from Bronze Age and earlier Iron Age small-scale farms and gathered pace in the last cal 200–300 years BC, for crop growing as well as pasture, and was continued rather than intensified in the first two centuries cal AD. It is difficult to see differences in this economic expansion north and south of the Antonine Wall itself, or east and west of the Forth–Clyde isthmus, but it is tentatively suggested that in the foothills of the Southern Uplands the Romans entered a landscape already decaying. Roman influence is perhaps recognizable at some localities in a reduction of cereal production and the expansion of grazed pasture, assumed to represent a restructuring of the native economy to support a new market. It is presumed that imports of foodstuffs continued to be important to Roman forces during Antonine occupation, although possible reconstructions of the sediments in the Forth and Clyde estuaries suggest these may not have provided ideal harbours. There is little evidence that this increased pastoral economy imposed stresses on soils or plant communities, and the market seems to have been readily supplied within the agricultural capacity of the landscape. Nevertheless, the native economy was probably artificially buoyed by the Roman presence, and withdrawal eventually led to what is best described as an agricutural recession, not population collapse.

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Section: River Valleys and Geomorphic Activitymentioning

confidence: 85%

The landscape context of the Antonine Wall: a review of the literature

Tipping¹,

Tisdall²

2006

PSAS

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“…Other aspects of Bronze Age life have been revealed by developer-funded fieldwork. At Rough Castle, Falkirk, a cobble layer discovered beneath peat has been interpreted as a ford across a filled-in water channel (Hamilton et al 2001). This was dated to the early first millennium bc.…”

Section: A Summary Of the Bronze Age Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Developer-funded fieldwork in Scotland, 1990-2003

Phillips¹,

Bradley²

2005

PSAS

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The paper is in two parts. The first presents a digest of the prehistoric evidence recovered by developer-funded archaeology between 1990 and 2003 and compares it with the results of projects funded by Historic Scotland. The second reflects on the wider significance of this material in relation to past and present research on Scottish prehistory and its implications for the archaeology of Britain and Ireland.

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A Prehistoric Ford near Rough Castle, Falkirk

Cited by 2 publications

References 1 publication

The landscape context of the Antonine Wall: a review of the literature

The landscape context of the Antonine Wall: a review of the literature

Developer-funded fieldwork in Scotland, 1990-2003

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