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Neolithic Scotland: Changing Perceptions, New Approaches, Plethora of Data, and Contested Narratives
This resource contains the first of the 2020 Rhind Lectures and sources of further information on the topics covered in this lecture by Dr Alison Sheridan’s. Watch the lecture and then explore the resources below.

The Lecturer
Dr Alison Sheridan FSA FRSE FSAScot MDAI FBA ACIfA recently retired as Principal Archaeological Research Curator in National Museums Scotland, having worked there since 1987 after obtaining her doctorate from the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on the Scottish Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age in their wider European context, specialising in pottery, stone axeheads, and jewellery of jet, faience and gold. Past President of the Prehistoric Society and Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, she became a Fellow of the British Academy in 2019.

Further Information
Want to find out more? Here is a list of publications and useful websites for the topics covered in each of the lectures, presented in the order in which they appeared in the lectures.

Free resources
Where possible we have linked to Open Access and free resources. When not possible we have included links to WorldCat - a website that allows you to find the nearest library with the publication, links to the publishers website to buy, and much more. Furthermore the full citation can be viewed by clicking the footnote behind each resources.

Example Link

The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland (find at a library or publisher)

The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland ← this is the title of the book

← ''this is the footnote. Click it to be taken to the full reference at the end of the page''.

(find at a library or publisher) ← this is the link to WorldCat to try and find the book at your nearest library

General Publications
For a good general publication that places Neolithic Scotland in its broader context:

The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland (find at a library or publisher)

There are several books about Neolithic Scotland, including:

The Neolithic of Mainland Scotland (find at a library or publisher)

Developments over the summer and autumn of 2020
Recently-published books about Orkney


 * Landscapes Revealed: remote sensing across the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site (find at a library or publisher)
 * The Ness of Brodgar as it Stands (publishers website)

Results of Irish Mesolithic and Neolithic DNA study


 * A dynastic elite in monumental Neolithic society (free version) (publisher's version)
 * Incest uncovered at elite prehistoric Irish burial site (free version).

The Mesolithic–Neolithic transition debate (and see also Lecture 2)
The Birth of Neolithic Britain: an interpretive account (find at a library or publisher)

Review of Julian Thomas, The Birth of Neolithic Britain: An Interpretive Account (free version)  (publisher's version)

Alexander Henry Rhind’s excavation of chamber tombs in Caithness, 1853
Results of excavations in sepulchral cairns in the north of Scotland, identical in internal design with the great chambered tumuli on the Banks of the Boyne, in Ireland (Public Domain)

Caithness Archaeology: aspects of prehistory (find at a library or publisher)

[https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=Df0wAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA255 Crania Britannica. Delineations and Descriptions of the Skulls of the Aboriginal and Early Inhabitants of the British Islands: with notices of their other remains (Public Domain)]

Robert Innes Shearer’s and Joseph Anderson’s excavations in Caithness, Sutherland and Ross-shire, 1860s
(note: this is just a selection of the publications)

Report on the ancient remains of Caithness, and results of explorations (Public Domain)

On the horned cairns of Caithness: their structural arrangement, contents of chambers etc. (Public Domain)

Scotland in Pagan Times, the Bronze and Stone Ages (Public Domain) (The quoted is on pp. 234–5.)

Latest study of Neolithic chamber tombs and funerary practices in Scotland
Making sense of Scottish Neolithic funerary monuments: tracing trajectories and understanding their rationale. In Monumentalising Life in the Neolithic: narratives of change and continuity (find at a library or publisher)

Introduction to the transformation in our understanding of, and approaches to, the Scottish Neolithic
Scotland’s Archaeology Strategy (website)

Scotland’s Rock Art Project (website)

Carn Glas, Kilcoy passage tomb (web article)

Kilmartin Museum: 6,000 Years of Scottish History at Kilmartin Museum (video)

Build ‘N’ Burn: using fire to create memorable learning experiences for the public (web article) See also Reach 08: Build n Burn (web article)

Education resources on Mesolithic and Neolithic Scotland created for Forestry and Land Scotland by Matt Ritchie
Into the Wildwoods: explore the Mesolithic in Scotland’s native woodlands (free)

[https://forestryandland.gov.scot/images/learn/archaeologyandheritage/The-First-Foresters.pdf#:~:text=The%20First%20Foresters%20Acknowledgements%20This%20resource%20is%20published,by%20Matt%20Ritchie%20and%20designed%20by%20Ian%20Kirkwood. The First Foresters: explore the Neolithic in Scotland’s native woodlands (free)]

Radiocarbon dating – archaeology’s second revolution
A pre-radiocarbon dating view of the date of Scotland’s Neolithic period (1954)

Neolithic Cultures of the British Isles (find at a library or publisher)

IntCal20: a new radiocarbon calibration curve

The science bit:

The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP) (Open Access)

Important statement about its implications:

IntCAL20 tree rings: an archaeological Swot analysis (Open Access)

The use of Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates in Neolithic Orkney

Islands of history: the Late Neolithic timescape of Orkney (free access)

Developments in the study of funerary monuments
Survey and recording by Audrey Henshall, James Davidson & Graham Ritchie

The Chambered Tombs of Scotland, Volume 1 (find at a library or publisher)

The Chambered Tombs of Scotland, Volume 2 (find at a library or publisher)

The Chambered Cairns of Orkney (find at a library or publisher)

The Chambered Cairns of Caithness (find at a library or publisher)

The Chambered Cairns of Sutherland (find at a library or publisher)

The Chambered Cairns of the Central Highlands (find at a library or publisher)

3D photogrammetric modelling of chamber tombs in Orkney by Dr Hugo Anderson-Whymark, on behalf of Historic Environment Scotland: Cuween passage tomb

…and other Orcadian monuments (and a whole lot of fascinating stuff!): 3D model collections by Historic Environment Scotland

Other kinds of survey technique
Conventional aerial photography

Image of Forteviot see: Prehistoric Forteviot: excavations of a ceremonial complex in eastern Scotland. SERF Volume 1 (free version).

For the National collection of AP images: https://www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-and-research/archives-and-collections/national-collection-of-aerial-photography/

Airborne Lidar: survey of Arran:

Airborne laser scan reveals unknown ancient sites (web article)

Geophysical survey (and other types of survey):

Landscapes Revealed: remote sensing across the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site (find at a library or publisher)

Landscape reconstruction
Modelling sea-level change

[https://www.abdn.ac.uk/geosciences/departments/archaeology/the-rising-tide-investigations-into-the-submerged-archaeology-of-orkney-261.php#:~:text=The%20Rising%20Tide%20Project%20was%20set%20up%20in,on%20the%20sea%20bed%20is%20of%20particular%20interest. The Rising Tide: Investigations into the Submerged Archaeology of Orkney (website)]

Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of landscapes

An Animate Landscape: rock art and the prehistory of Kilmartin, Argyll, Scotland (find at a library or publisher)

Lecture by Dr Richard Tipping about the Kilmichael Glassary palaeoenvironmental reconstruction

Coprostanols – introduction to

Muck n’molecules: organic geochemical methods for detecting ancient manuring (free version) (publisher's version)

Palaeoclimate reconstruction, and climate change issues
Centennial climate variability in the British Isles during the mid-late Holocene (free version) (publisher's version)

8000 years of North Atlantic storminess reconstructed from a Scottish peat record: implications for Holocene atmospheric circulation patterns in Western Europe (free version) (publisher's version)

For the Northern Isles and Caithness during the final part of the Ice Age and the immediately succeeding millennia

Palaeoclimate reconstruction of the Northern Isles of Scotland, and Caithness, during the Last Glacial – Interglacial Transition (unpublished PhD)

HES’ Climate Action Plan (website)

Swandro passage tomb and Iron Age settlement (website)

Developments in artefact research
Projet JADE, on axeheads and other artefacts of jadeitite and other Alpine rock

Ecology of a Tool: the ground stone axes of Irian Jaya (Indonesia) (find at a library or publisher)

''JADE Tomes 1 et 2. Grandes haches alpines du Néolithique européenVe et IVe millénaires av. J.-C''. (find at a library or publisher)

Objets-signes et interpretations sociales dans l’Europe néolithique (find at a library or publisher)

Among the many other publications from Projet JADE is this recent article in English:

Fifty shades of green: the irresistible attraction, use and significance of jadeitite and other green Alpine rock types in Neolithic Europe. In A Taste for Green: a global perspective on ancient jade, turquoise and variscite exchange (find at a library or publisher)

Professor Mark Edmonds’ Working Stone (website) project

Lipid analysis of pottery

Immediate replacement of fishing with dairying by the earliest farmers of the NE Atlantic archipelagos (Open Access)

Development of the technique of identifying cereal and other plant-based lipids

Towards the detection of dietary cereal processing through absorbed lipid biomarkers in archaeological pottery (Open Access)

3D photogrammetric modelling of carved stone balls

'Enormous Petrified Mulberries': a new dimension on carved stone balls (web article)

Ways of recording impressions on pottery

RTI image of textile impression on Grooved Ware from Ness of Brodgar:

Evidence of woven textiles confirmed at the Ness – The Ness of Brodgar Excavation (web article)

And see the Card et al. 2020 The Ness of Brodgar book referred to above, p. 259 (and note on p.258 there is a photo of the base of a Grooved Ware pot from that site with a matting impression.

Professor Linda Hurcombe’s Touching the Past project:

Perishable Material Culture in Prehistory: investigating the missing majority (find at a library or publisher)

[https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/19706/1/FullText.pdf Dima, M., Hurcombe, L.M. & Wright, M.2014. Touching the past: haptic augmented reality for museum artefacts (free version)]. (publisher's version)

Conventional photography, under raking light, of the matting impression on the base of a Grooved Ware pot from Barnhouse, Orkney. The image used in the lecture is by Lynda Aiano. A drawing of the pot in question can be found in Dwelling among the Monuments: the Neolithic village of Barnhouse, Maeshowe passage grave and surrounding monuments at Stenness (find at a library or publisher) fig. 4.17

Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) of various Neolithic artefacts

Making a Mark: image and process in Neolithic Britain and Ireland (find at a library or publisher)

CT imaging and other research on Late Neolithic dog coprolites from Skara Brae:

Combined visual and biochemical analyses confirm depositor and diet for Neolithic coprolites from Skara Brae (Open Access)

Developments in the study of human and animal remains
Studies of Neolithic blunt force trauma (not just in Scotland)

Understanding blunt force trauma and violence in Neolithic Europe: the first experiments using a skin-skull-brain model and the Thames Beater (Open Access)

‘In this chambered tumulus were found cleft skulls…’: an assessment of the evidence for cranial trauma in the British Neolithic (free version) (publisher's version)

Skeletal evidence for interpersonal violence in the Neolithic (free version). In Sticks, stones, and broken bones: Neolithic violence in a European perspective (find at a library or publisher)

ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry) as applied to Late Mesolithic bone fragments from Oronsay

Finding Britain's last hunter-gatherers: A new biomolecular approach to ‘unidentifiable’ bone fragments utilising bone collagen (Open Access)

Sexing remains through peptide analysis of tooth enamel

Sex determination of human remains from peptides in tooth enamel (Open Access)

Isotope analysis

Touch not the fish: the Mesolithic–Neolithic change of diet and its significance (free version) (publisher's version)

On the northwestern fringes: earlier Neolithic subsistence in Britain and Ireland as seen through faunal remains and stable isotopes (free version). In The origins and spread of domestic animals in southwest Asia and Europe (find at a library or publisher)

On the debate about the interpretation of isotope results relating to the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition

Constructing a narrative for the Neolithic of Britain and Ireland: the use of ‘hard science’ and archaeological reasoning (free version) (publisher's version)

Current international project that includes isotopic analysis of Neolithic individuals from Orkney, Dr Jessica Smyth’s Passage Tomb People project

Passage Tomb People – Investigating the social drivers of passage tomb construction (website)

The claim that cattle and pigs were driven from Scotland to Durrington Walls for Late Neolithic feasts

Multi-isotope analysis reveals that feasts in the Stonehenge environs and across Wessex drew people and animals from throughout Britain (Open Access)

Barclay & Brophy’s critique

‘A veritable chauvinism of prehistory’: nationalist prehistories and the ‘British’ late Neolithic mythos (free version) (publisher's version)

DNA analysis

Professor Kristian Kristiansen hails this as the third revolution in archaeology

[http://www.arkeologiskasamfundet.se/csa/Dokument/Volumes/csa_vol_22_2014/csa_vol_22_2014_s11-34_kristiansen.pdf Towards a new paradigm? The third scientific revolution and its possible consequences in archaeology (Open Access)].

First major study of British Mesolithic and Neolithic human aDNA

Ancient genomes indicate population replacement in Early Neolithic Britain (publisher's version)

Dr Tom Booth on the debate about interpreting aDNA results

A stranger in a strange land: a perspective on archaeological responses to the palaeogenetic revolution from an archaeologist working amongst palaeogeneticists (free version) (publisher's version)

Animal aDNA

Cattle

Across Europe: Mitochondrial DNA analysis shows a Near Eastern Neolithic origin for domestic cattle and no indication of domestication of European aurochs (free)

Scotland: Matrilines in Neolithic cattle from Orkney, Scotland reveals complex husbandry patterns of ancestry (free version) (publisher's version).

Sheep (and other mammals)

Neolithic animal domestication as seen from DNA (free version) (publisher's version)

Deer

Colonization of the Scottish islands via long-distance transport of red deer (Cervus elaphus) (free)

Orkney vole

Divergent evolutionary processes associated with colonization of offshore islands (Open Access)

For critique, see Constructing a narrative for the Neolithic of Britain and Ireland: the use of ‘hard science’ and archaeological reasoning (find at a library or publisher)

Barley

Phylogeographic analysis of barley DNA as evidence for the spread of Neolithic agriculture through Europe (Open Access)

Dog

Origins and genetic legacy of prehistoric dogs (free version) (publisher's version)

Comparison of village dog and wolf genomes highlights the role of the neural crest in dog domestication (Open Access).

Village dog DNA reveals genetic changes caused by domestication (web article)

Rock art
Scotland's Rock Art Project (website)

Design and Connectivity: the case of Atlantic rock art (find at a library or publisher)

Research frameworks covering Neolithic Scotland
Scottish Archaeological Research Framework, Neolithic panel report (webpages)

Regional research frameworks (webpages):


 * Regional Archaeological Research Framework for Argyll (RARFA)
 * South East Scotland Archaeological Research Framework (SESARF)
 * Highland Archaeological Research Framework (HighARF)
 * Scotland’s Islands Research Framework for Archaeology (SIRFA)
 * Perth and Kinross Archaeological Research Framework (PKARF)