Research Priorities for Archaeometallurgy in Scotland

Hunter, Fraser; Cowie, Trevor; Heald, Andrew

doi:10.3366/saj.2006.28.1.49

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Placing the Seafield West ironworking debris into a wider context is difficult. There is no synthetic study of ironworking practices in Iron Age Scotland and attempts to build one are hindered by the wide variation in recording, interpretation and publication of past examples (see Hunter, Cowie & Heald 2007). While a broad picture can be constructed from older literature, we are reliant on recent excavations for a more detailed understanding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Later Prehistoric Settlement and Metalworking Site at Seafield West, near Inverness, Highland

Cressey¹,

Anderson²,

Clarke³

et al. 2011

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Construction in 1996 at a major retail development site close to Inverness, Highland resulted in the destruction of two known cropmark sites. One set of cropmarks was found to be associated with a Bronze Age log-boat burial site and the results of the ensuing excavation are published elsewhere (Cressey & Sheridan 2003). The excavation of a second area of cropmarks forms the subject of this publication. The archaeological remains consisted of a series of negative features, post-holes and annular ditches which form parts of at least nine separate structures of a later prehistoric unenclosed settlement. A mould fragment indicated Late Bronze Age sword production in the vicinity. A palisaded enclosure produced a copper-alloy brooch that is a rare find for the region. Evidence of copper-alloy objects and metalworking from a smelting hearth and slags show that the occupants were of some status. Some of the structural and artefactual evidence compellingly points to an in situ ironworking workshop. A large cache of smithing charcoal found in association with a smelting hearth was radiocarbon dated to 180BC-AD70 and represents one of the few dated in situ Iron Age ironworking episodes in Scotland.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Later Prehistoric Settlement and Metalworking Site at Seafield West, near Inverness, Highland

Cressey¹,

Anderson²,

Clarke³

et al. 2011

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“…As well as the marked expansion of the inventory of domestic pottery, the increasing number of settlement excavations is leading to the recovery of other categories of ceramic artifact, at least some of which may in turn shed light on other aspects of Bronze Age technology (for example loom weights or the wide range of ceramics associated with metalworking ranging from clay moulds, crucibles and heating trays to furnace and hearth materials and tuyeres (Hunter et al 2006).…”

Section: Middle To Late Bronze Age Potterymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This section follows the evidence for the prospection of the potential ore and native metal sources through to the final deposition of the metal objects (see Ottaway and Roberts 2008). It builds on the recent review of research priorities for archaeometallurgy in Scotland which encompassed the Bronze Age (Hunter et al 2006).…”

Section: -800 Bcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A single nineteenth century account of stone and bronze tools from mines at Leadhills and a handful of coarse stone tools from Galloway have been proposed as putative mining implements. Additional indirect evidence for Bronze Age mining includes a now lost copper axe or ingot hoard found near a copper ore deposit at Tonderghie, Dumfries and Galloway and the Early Bronze Age lead beads from West Water Reservoir, Scottish Borders, which have a lead isotope signature suggestive of a Southern Uplands lead source (Hunter, Cowie and Heald 2006). There is no evidence for Bronze Age gold mining although the recent discovery of a looped spearhead within or close to the alluvial gold deposits at the Mennock Water (Cowie 2008), Wanlockhead is of potential interest and can be paralleled with the items of Bronze Age metalwork recovered from alluvial tin deposits in Devon and Cornwall.…”

Section: Prospection Extraction and Ore Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Scotland: ScARF Panel Report

2012

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The main recommendations of the panel report can be summarised under five key headings:  Building the Scottish Bronze Age: Narratives should be developed to account for the regional and chronological trends and diversity within Scotland at this time. A chronology Bronze Age Scotland: ScARF Panel Report iv based upon Scottish as well as external evidence, combining absolute dating (and the statistical modelling thereof) with re-examined typologies based on a variety of sources – material cultural, funerary, settlement, and environmental evidence – is required to construct a robust and up to date framework for advancing research.  Bronze Age people: How society was structured and demographic questions need to be imaginatively addressed including the degree of mobility (both short and long-distance communication), hierarchy, and the nature of the ‘family’ and the ‘individual’. A range of data and methodologies need to be employed in answering these questions, including harnessing experimental archaeology systematically to inform archaeologists of the practicalities of daily life, work and craft practices.  Environmental evidence and climate impact: The opportunity to study the effects of climatic and environmental change on past society is an important feature of this period, as both palaeoenvironmental and archaeological data can be of suitable chronological and spatial resolution to be compared. Palaeoenvironmental work should be more effectively integrated within Bronze Age research, and inter-disciplinary approaches promoted at all stages of research and project design. This should be a two-way process, with environmental science contributing to interpretation of prehistoric societies, and in turn, the value of archaeological data to broader palaeoenvironmental debates emphasised. Through effective collaboration questions such as the nature of settlement and land-use and how people coped with environmental and climate change can be addressed.  Artefacts in Context: The Scottish Chalcolithic and Bronze Age provide good evidence for resource exploitation and the use, manufacture and development of technology, with particularly rich evidence for manufacture. Research into these topics requires the application of innovative approaches in combination. This could include biographical approaches to artefacts or places, ethnographic perspectives, and scientific analysis of artefact composition. In order to achieve this there is a need for data collation, robust and sustainable databases and a review of the categories of data.  Wider Worlds: Research into the Scottish Bronze Age has a considerable amount to offer other European pasts, with a rich archaeological data set that includes intact settlement deposits, burials and metalwork of every stage of development that has been the subject of a long history of study. Research should operate over different scales of analysis, tracing connections and developments from the local and regional, to the international context. In this way, Scottish Bronze Age studies can contribute to broader questions relating both to the Bronze Age and to human society in general.

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“…Thus its main focus is on the procurement, manufacture and aspects of the use of material culture. The overview provided in Haselgrove et al (2001, 14-22) remains a valid general treatment of the theme, while Hunter et al (2006) provide a recent review of archaeometallurgy in Scotland. This section seeks to avoid mere repetition of the conclusions in these works, but will focus on key opportunities and issues in the Scottish material.…”

Section: Making and Usingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Iron Age Scotland

Hunter¹,

Carruthers²

2012

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The main recommendations of the panel report can be summarised under five key headings:  Building blocks: The ultimate aim should be to build rich, detailed and testable narratives situated within a European context, and addressing phenomena from the longue durée to the short-term over international to local scales. Chronological control is essential to this and effective dating strategies are required to enable generation-level analysis. The ‘serendipity factor’ of archaeological work must be enhanced by recognising and getting the most out of information-rich sites as they appear. o There is a pressing need to revisit the archives of excavated sites to extract more information from existing resources, notably through dating programmes targeted at regional sequences – the Western Isles Atlantic roundhouse sequence is an obvious target. o Many areas still lack anything beyond the baldest of settlement sequences, with little understanding of the relations between key site types. There is a need to get at least basic sequences from many more areas, either from sustained regional programmes or targeted sampling exercises. o Much of the methodologically innovative work and new insights have come from long-running research excavations. Such large-scale research projects are an important element in developing new approaches to the Iron Age.  Daily life and practice: There remains great potential to improve the understanding of people’s lives in the Iron Age through fresh approaches to, and integration of, existing and newly-excavated data. o House use. Rigorous analysis and innovative approaches, including experimental archaeology, should be employed to get the most out of the understanding of daily life through the strengths of the Scottish record, such as deposits within buildings, organic preservation and waterlogging. o Material culture. Artefact studies have the potential to be far more integral to understandings of Iron Age societies, both from the rich assemblages of the Atlantic area and less-rich lowland finds. Key areas of concern are basic studies of material groups (including the function of everyday items such as stone and bone tools, and the nature of craft processes – iron, copper alloy, bone/antler and shale offer particularly good evidence). Other key topics are: the role of ‘art’ and other forms of decoration and comparative approaches to assemblages to obtain synthetic views of the uses of material culture. o Field to feast. Subsistence practices are a core area of research essential to understanding past society, but different strands of evidence need to be more fully integrated, with a ‘field to feast’ approach, from production to consumption. The working of agricultural systems is poorly understood, from agricultural processes to cooking practices and cuisine: integrated work between different specialisms would assist greatly. There is a need for conceptual as well as practical perspectives – e.g. how were wild resources conceived? o Ritual practice. There has been valuable work in identifying depositional practices, such as deposition of animals or querns, which are thought to relate to house-based ritual practices, but there is great potential for further pattern-spotting, synthesis and interpretation. Iron Age Scotland: ScARF Panel Report v  Landscapes and regions:  Concepts of ‘region’ or ‘province’, and how they changed over time, need to be critically explored, because they are contentious, poorly defined and highly variable. What did Iron Age people see as their geographical horizons, and how did this change?  Attempts to understand the Iron Age landscape require improved, integrated survey methodologies, as existing approaches are inevitably partial.  Aspects of the landscape’s physical form and cover should be investigated more fully, in terms of vegetation (known only in outline over most of the country) and sea level change in key areas such as the firths of Moray and Forth.  Landscapes beyond settlement merit further work, e.g. the use of the landscape for deposition of objects or people, and what this tells us of contemporary perceptions and beliefs.  Concepts of inherited landscapes (how Iron Age communities saw and used this longlived land) and socal resilience to issues such as climate change should be explored more fully.  Reconstructing Iron Age societies. The changing structure of society over space and time in this period remains poorly understood. Researchers should interrogate the data for better and more explicitly-expressed understandings of social structures and relations between people.  The wider context: Researchers need to engage with the big questions of change on a European level (and beyond). Relationships with neighbouring areas (e.g. England, Ireland) and analogies from other areas (e.g. Scandinavia and the Low Countries) can help inform Scottish studies. Key big topics are: o The nature and effect of the introduction of iron. o The social processes lying behind evidence for movement and contact. o Parallels and differences in social processes and developments. o The changing nature of houses and households over this period, including the role of ‘substantial houses’, from crannogs to brochs, the development and role of complex architecture, and the shift away from roundhouses. o The chronology, nature and meaning of hillforts and other enclosed settlements. o Relationships with the Roman world

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Research Priorities for Archaeometallurgy in Scotland

Cited by 7 publications

References 12 publications

A Later Prehistoric Settlement and Metalworking Site at Seafield West, near Inverness, Highland

A Later Prehistoric Settlement and Metalworking Site at Seafield West, near Inverness, Highland

Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Scotland: ScARF Panel Report

Iron Age Scotland

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