Elginhaugh is the most completely excavated timber-built auxiliary fort in the Roman Empire. This report provides an assessment of all the structures, with particular emphasis on the identification of stable-barracks and the implications for the identification of garrisons based on fort plans, while extensive examination of the annexe makes a substantial contribution to the debate about the function of these attached enclosures. Because the occupation is so closely dated (A.D. 79-87), the site provides a very precise dating horizon for the wide range of artefactual material reported on. Of particular importance is the evidence for the local manufacture of coarseware and mortaria, including the identification of a new mortarium potter. An extensive programme of environmental analysis provides insight into issues of local environment and food supply. Finally, there is unique evidence that the site continued to function as a collection centre for animals after the garrison had departed.

A Roman Frontier Fort in Scotland: Elginhaugh

W.S. Hanson, 2007. Tempus (Stroud) ISBN 978-0-7524-4113-9. 159  pages, 7 text figures, 2 tables and 26 colour plates

Elginhaugh is the most completely excavated timber-built auxiliary fort in the Roman Empire. The excavator tells two interrelated stories: the processes involved in the discovery, excavation and interpretation of the evidence from the site and the nature of life on the furthest northern frontier of the Roman empire in late first century AD. 

We learn how the fort, garrisoned for less than a decade, fits into the Roman conquest and occupation of Scotland; how it was built and maintained; and about the range of buildings found inside. We are shown how the evidence demonstrates that the garrison, at first thought to be entirely infantry, was in fact cavalry, with the troopers living alongside their horses. We see how the extensive excavation within the fort annexe helps reaffirm the function of these attached enclosures as primarily military rather than for civilian occupation. We learn about the nature and quality of daily life: what the soldiers ate and how they spent their time. Finally, we see the impact of the military presence on the environment and the local population, and how the site continued to function as a centre for taxation in kind even after the garrison had departed.

Excavations at Tintagel Castle, Cornwall, 1990-1999

Rachel C. Barrowman, Colleen E. Batey and Christopher D. Morris, 2007. Society of Antiquaries

Rock-perched sea-girt Tintagel is a romantic and magical place that resonates with Arthurian associations – and the archaeological reality is no less intriguing than the legend.

Investigation of the site began in the 1930s, when Dr Ralegh Radford uncovered remains of buildings with significant volumes of eastern Mediterranean and North African pottery of 5th-7th century date, suggesting a western British site of iconic importance in the economy of the late Antique and Byzantine world.

The research presented in this book comes from renewed fieldwork carried out at this promontory site over several seasons between  1990 and 1999, using modern archaeological techniques, together with previously unpublished work from Radford’s private archive, along with that of his architect, J.A. Wright.

This work demonstrated the complexity and variability of building forms and associated occupation at the site and the wide-ranging connections of Tintagel during the 5th-7th centuries, as reflected in the extensive ceramic assemblage, while re-examination of the “Great Ditch” has established that this is the largest promontory or hill-top site of its period.

A unique glass assemblage and a stone with probable imperial inscription to Honorius – later the object of graffiti from three post-Roman personages, Paternus, Coliavus and Artognou – serve as dramatic testimony to the cultural and literary milieu of high-status Dumnonian society in the post Roman period.

Continental and Mediterranean imports to Atlantic Britain and Ireland AD 400–800

Ewan Campbell 2007. Council for British Archaeology Research Report 157.  (York)

From the 5th to 8th centuries AD there was a flourishing trading network linking the Atlantic coasts of Britain and Ireland to the Mediterranean and north-west Europe, bringing imported pottery and glass as well as new ideas to these areas. New material is constantly being found in rescue excavations, and it is now recognised that the imports are more widespread and more diverse than previously realised. This monograph is the first comprehensive account of the material, giving full contextual information, linked to an online database. Around 1000 vessels from 150 sites are described, including fine tablewares, drinking vessels and transport containers for luxuries such as dyestuffs, nuts, wine and olive oil. The chronology and typology of the wares are discussed in detail, as the imports are often the most robust dating evidence from sites which are otherwise poor in surviving material culture. The wares catalogued include Phocaean Red Slipware, African Red Slipware, Late Roman Amphorae, sigillées paléochrétiennes grise (D ware), E ware, and glass of Campbell’s Groups A-F.  Detailed taphonomic studies, developed here to deal with the problems posed by small assemblages, help to tease out the depositional processes at some of the most significant sites from this era, including Tintagel, Dinas Powys, Whithorn and Dunadd.

The imports reveal aspects of early medieval society which are otherwise missing from the historical record. They show the Atlantic West had widespread contacts with the Byzantine Empire and Merovingian France, belying the view that this area was peripheral or backward in European terms. The trade was controlled from a few nodal sites with royal characteristics, where wealth was accumulated and used to produce the elaborate jewellery characteristic of the west. Through the analysis of the imports we gain significant new insights about the growth of royal power at this formative stage of Insular early medieval states. This book will be an invaluable aid to students and researchers of material culture and trade in early medieval Europe.

Articulating Local Cultures. Power and Identity under the Expanding Roman Republic

Peter van Dommelen and N. Terrenato (eds.) 2007. Journal of Roman archaeology supplementary series 63. Portsmouth, RI: Journal of Roman archaeology.

Between the 6th and 1st c. B.C. the Roman Republic expanded from a small city-state in central Italy to a major power holding sway over much of the Mediterranean. While the military and political events and the major structural consequences of this expansion have been widely studied, relatively little attention has been given to the specifically local social and cultural developments in all of the affected regions. To be sure, there are questions that have been considered individually, but it is only recently that they have begun to be examined in a systematic fashion and with comparisons made between different regions. The issues relate, for instance, to the incorporation of a given region into the expanding Republic. How did it take place in different regions (including those of the Italian peninsula)? How did it involve the local élites and the social and economic structures on which their power was based? If we look further down the social and economic scales, to what extent were the majority of rural inhabitants of Mediterranean lands affected and how did they cope with the new reality?

This book builds on many previous studies of ‘Romanisation’ in the western Mediterranean, and in that sense we aim to contribute to this strand of Roman archaeology. At the same time, however, the book diverges from mainstream Romanisation research by adopting an explicitly local perspective in order to examine the differences between the ways in which both different regions became part of the Roman Republic and how different social and economic groups within these regional communities were incorporated in the new Republican setting. It is the persistence, transformation or disappearance of preexisting local cultural traditions, in conjunction with the spread of Roman and Italic traditions and material culture in these regions, that constitute the key theme.

Neolithic Scotland: Timber, Stone, Earth and Fire

Gordon Noble 2006. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0 7486 2338 8 Paperback

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.

The archaeology of a collection: the Keiller–Knowles collection of the National Museum of Ireland

Peter Woodman, Nyree Finlay and Elizabeth Anderson (eds) 2006. Wordwell/National Museums of Ireland. ISBN 1869857976

In 1924 W.J. Knowles’s collection of 30,000 artefacts—the vast bulk of which comprised prehistoric Irish stone tools—was put up for auction in London. As a result, the largest collection of Irish archaeological artefacts was dispersed among a variety of dealers, collectors and museums. One of the purchasers, Alexander Keiller, donated 15,000 objects to the National Museum of Ireland in 1938, a large proportion of which derived from Knowles’s collection. 

This book details the history of the Keiller–Knowles Collection, examines the typology and distribution of the artefacts represented, and signals the curatorial lessons to be learnt, regarding both the issue of dispersal and the peculiar problems associated with cataloguing a collection of this size. The significance of the Keiller–Knowles Collection in the broader context of Irish lithic studies is also analysed.

A Crannog of the First Millennium AD: Excavations by Jack Scott at Loch Glashan, Argyll, 1960

Anne Crone and Ewan Campbell, 2005. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph. ISBN 0 903903 36 9. 153pp, 59 figs, 36 plates

The early medieval crannog in Loch Glashan was excavated in 1960 by Jack Scott, in advance of dam construction. Originally interpreted as a domestic settlement, the crannog produced a rich organic assemblage of wood and leather objects as well as exotic items such Continental imported pottery and a brooch studded with amber. Tantalising glimpses of this assemblage have appeared in publications over the years but, for the first time all the evidence from the crannog has been drawn together and re-examined. New radiocarbon dates, together with datable artefacts, suggest a complex chronology for the crannog, with activity throughout much of the 1 st millennium AD. This extended chronology is at odds with the scant structural remains which display little evidence of the refurbishment and repair that one might expect had the crannog been occupied for hundreds of years. This apparent conflict is examined, raising general questions about the taphonomy and post-depositional history of crannogs. A new explanation is put forward, suggesting that the visible stratigraphy is the result of a complex sequence of erosion due to the effects of wind and water movement, eroding and dispersing deposits and artefacts.

Re-examination of the artefact assemblage, which comprises the bulk of the evidence from Loch Glashan, has provided many new insights, perhaps the most significant of which is the identification of a leather satchel which may have held books, the oldest surviving example of a type known to have been used by early monks. Its presence on the crannog is puzzling but other artefactual evidence, together with its location, suggests that the crannog may have had a non-domestic function, possibly as a craftworkers site where leather was worked and exotic items for the aristocratic elite of the early medieval kingdom of Dál Riata were produced. 

The Archaeology of Mediterannean Prehistory

Emma Blake and A. Bernard Knapp (eds.), 2005. Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology. ISBN: 9780631232674

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to the archaeology of Mediterranean prehistory and an essential reference to the most recent research and fieldwork.

• Only book available to offer general coverage of Mediterranean prehistory
• Written by 15 of the leading archaeologists in the field
• Spans the Neolithic through the Iron Age, and draws from all the major regions of the Mediterranean's coast and islands
• Presents the central debates in Mediterranean prehistory—trade and interaction, rural economies, ritual, social structure, gender, monumentality, insularity, archaeometallurgy and the metals trade, stone technologies, settlement, and maritime traffic—as well as contemporary legacies of the region's prehistoric past
• Structure of text is pedagogically driven
• Engages diverse theoretical approaches so students will see the benefits of multivocality

 

The Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow

Basak Arda, A. Bernard Knapp and Jennifer M. Webb 2005. (Corpus of Cypriote Antiquities 26, Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology XX:26. Sävedalen: P. Åström’s Förlag)

The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow, Scotland's oldest museum, opened in 1807, and now contains an array of very diverse assemblages and collections. This publication presents all the holdings of Cypriot pottery and other materials in the museum's various collections, and seeks to integrate them into archaeological and museological discussions. The aims of this work are: to integrate a previously unpublished and largely unknown collection of material into the wider spectrum of Cypriot (and Mediterranean) archaeology; to contribute to ongoing efforts to publish Cypriot materials dispersed to museums worldwide in the wake of 19th century colonial practice; and to supplement discussions on the value and uses of unpublished and unprovenanced museum material.

This work originated in Basak Arda's 2003 dissertation for the Taught MPhil course in Mediterranean Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow (supervised by Professors Elisabeth Moignard (Department of Classics) and A. Bernard Knapp (Department of Archaeology). In this thoroughly revised version of  the MPhil dissertation, Knapp, together with Arda, rewrote and restructured the main text, whilst Webb collaborated fully with Arda to refine the identifications and expand on the comparanda for various objects presented in the Catalogue.

Roman Dacia: the Making of a Provincial Society

W. S. Hanson and I. P. Haynes (eds) 2004. Journal of Roman Archaeology, Supplement 56 (Portsmouth, RI). ISBN 1-887829-56-3. 190 pages, 82 plates and figures, 4  tables.

This volume, the first in English to consider the province of Dacia for some decades, derives from a session held at the Roman Archaeology Conference held in Glasgow in 2001, with the addition of two new papers. Though a wide range of themes are included, all share a principal concern with the evolution of provincial culture in Roman Dacia.

1. An introduction to Roman Dacia, I.P. Haynes and W.S. Hanson
2. The Late Iron Age background to Roman Dacia,  K. Lockyear
3. The supposed extermination of the Dacians: the literary tradition, D. Ruscu
4. The towns of Roman Dacia: an overview of recent archaeological research, A. Diaconescu
5. Rural settlement in Roman Dacia: some considerations, I. A. Oltean
6. Burial monuments and their implications, C. Ciongradi
7. The diffusion of religious belief in Roman Dacia: a case-study of the gods of Asia Minor, A. Schäfer

The Archaeology of the Colonized

Michael Given 2004. Routledge. ISBN 0415369924. Paperback ISBN 0415369916. Hardback

History is often more interested in the conquerors than the conquered. This study, however, examines the ways in which the lives of ordinary men and women were affected by the oppression of colonisation. The study is structured around a large number and rich variety of case studies which demonstrate how the affects of colonisation can be detected in landscape archaeology, and how the identities of the oppressed can be uncovered. These case studies include late Bronze Age Cyprus, Roman Anatolia, Ottoman and British colonial Cyprus, ancient Egyptian granaries and the pyramid builders, Nazi concentration camps, and illicit whisky production in the highlands of Scotland. These landscapes reveal evidence of agricultural life continuing, of taxation, physical enslavement, forced labour and division, but they also exhibit the signs of resistance and self-expression.

Chapters

Introduction
Resistance - Agency - Landscape - Narrative
The Archaeology of Taxation
The Settlement of Empire
Living between Lines
The Dominated Body
The Patron Saint of Tax Evaders
Landscapes of Resistance
Conclusion: Archaeologists and the Colonized

Atlantic Connections and Adaptations: Economies, Environments and Subsistence in the North Atlantic Realm

Rupert Housley and Geraint Coles (eds.) 2004. Symposia of the Association for Environmental Archaeology 21, Oxbow Books

Maritime communications have played a vital role in shaping both human cultures and the biogeography of the North Atlantic Realm, a region containing discrete groups of islands separated by deep water. The aim of this volume is to explore the diversity of human environments and cultural adaptations present within the eastern part of the North Atlantic Realm, from Scotland and Norway in the East to Iceland in the West. The papers explore a number of key themes, including: the origins of flora and fauna of the North Atlantic Realm and the introduction of non-indigenous species in post-glacial periods; the various stages of human colonisation, from the explorations of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in the Hebridean islands to the Norse settlement of the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland during the 8th to 10th centuries AD, and how each stage of colonisation has had its own ecological characteristics and consequences for indigenous flora and fauna; the influence of climatic variability and extreme episodic events on local environments and human settlement patterns; and the establishment and development of human exchange and trade networks and how they have affected the range of resources available for human exploitation, from agricultural domesticates to the development of the Flemish sea fishery. These papers were presented at the first joint meeting of the Association for Environmental Archaeology (AEA) and the North Atlantic Bio-cultural Organisation (NABO), which was held at Glasgow University in March 2001.

Archaeological Informatics

Jeremy Huggett and Seamus Ross (eds) 2003. (Special Issue, Internet Archaeology 15)

The aim of this collection was to look beyond (or behind) the technologies we use, and consider the motives, forces, logics, and impacts of their use in a variety of different aspects of archaeology. If, as is generally accepted, information technologies are changing the world, what are the effects and implications for archaeology? What can we learn from the ways in which we go about implementing and using the different tools that we use? To what extent are these tools, and the resources they provide access to, actually changing the subject? In short, the aim was to break away from a straightforward acceptance of change, and to consider the nature of that change, the theory and practice behind the use of archaeological informatics, and to attempt to predict sustainable directions for the future.

The articles demonstrate that there are different ways of thinking 'beyond technology'. They also demonstrate that it is not an easy thing to do. Some focus on the ways that particular categories or areas of applications are implemented and used, and the implications of this for archaeology. Others look at the motives behind the development of larger-scale systems, at why they come to be the way they are and where they might go in the future. Others are more introspective still, and consider the broader implications of information technologies for archaeology and the effects of their infiltration and integration into the field. The very fact that there is no overall consistency of approach underlines the unfamiliarity of the ground being trodden, and in the process avoids the excessively utopian or dystopian perspectives that often colour such investigations in the wider world. It also emphasises that this is clearly not the final word!

Rural Society in the Age of Reason

Chris Dalglish (2003). Kluwer. ISBN-13: 978-0-306-47772-0. Paperback: 256 pages.

Essential to a consideration of the structuring of social relationships is the contemporary ideological context through which people explicitly understood their world. Understanding the emergence of modern society is to understand how today's social relationships came to be historically structured as they are. This work, focused on the Southern Scottish Highlands, is particularly concerned with the growth to predominance of the social relations of capitalism, where the central place of the individual, defined in isolation from wider society, relates to individualized notions of private property and land ownership, land rights and tenancy. This shift in importance of relationships started during the period of Improvement, a process involving fundamental change in the ways people engaged with each other. Improvement emphasized the individualized relationships of capitalism over those of community or kin, and this was in large measure achieved through the restructuring of the material, physical environment. This essential reading will be of importance to archaeologists specializing in capitalism, historical archaeology and Scottish archaeologists and historians. 

SOMA 2002: Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology

Ann Brysbaert, Natasja de Bruijn, Erin Gibson, Angela Michael and Mark Monaghan (eds.). British Archaeological Reports International Series 1142 (2003). ISBN 184171514X

The Symposium of Mediterranean Archaeology took place February 15th-17th 2002 at the University of Glasgow. The conference was organised around a variety of themes with the primary goal of attracting a diverse group of postgraduate researchers and facilitating discussion through the establishment of workshops on specific themes. Our primary aim was to give SOMA as wide a scope as possible within the context of Mediterranean archaeology. This was reflected in the wide range of papers presented both at the conference and included within this volume. Some of the broad themes running through the papers include landscape method and its application (Olaf Satijn, Kathleen Deckers, Mercourios Georgiadis, Antoon Mientjes, Ulla Rajala, Luke Sollars, Doortje van Hove, Erik can Rossenberg), religion and transitions (Rasha Metawi, Antonia Livieratou, Marta Camps i Calbet, Timothy Gambin), nationalism and identity (Robin Singh Bhattal, Astrid Lindenlauf, Angela Michael, Louis van den Hengel), and craft and craftspeople (Erika Pieler, Ann Brysbaert). Papers presented within these themes cover geographical areas ranging from Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Greece, Egypt and Malta, and time periods from the Palaeolithic to the modern period.

The conference successfully attracted individuals with interests in theory, reports on recent fieldwork, integrating historical and survey data, geoarchaeology, and ethnographic studies, experimental archaeology and computer applications. Bernard Knapp summarised the conference with a paper on recent developments and possible future directions of Mediterranean archaeology.

We feel this volume is a successful representation not only of the conference as a whole, but also of possible future directions in Mediterranean archaeology. By bringing together scholars from the entire Mediterranean region, we hope that SOMA 2002 facilitated a more integrated approach to Mediterranean archaeology thus providing a springboard for a vibrant archaeological future.

The Sydney Cyprus Survey Project: Social Approaches to Regional Archaeological Survey

Michael Given and A. Bernard Knapp. Monumenta Archaeologica 21. (Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA)

The Sydney Cyprus Survey Project (SCSP) devoted five seasons of fieldwork (1992-1997) to an intensive archaeological survey in the north-central foothills of the Troodos Mountains on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, in a 65 square km area in and around the modern villages of Politiko and Mitsero. The primary goal was to understand through archeological data and to exemplify through archaeological practice the relationship between the production and distribution of agricultural and metallurgical resources on the one hand, and the changing configurations of a complex society and the individauls within it on the other. The volume represents an integrated approach to the discussion of social landscapes—from archaeological, historical, geomorphological, geobotanical, and archaeometallurgical perspectives within the SCSP survey universe.

‌CAD: A Guide to Good Practice

Harrison Eiteljorg II, Kate Fernie, Jeremy Huggett and Damian Robinson (Oxbow Books: ISBN 1900188724)

From archaeological field work to heritage organisations and museums, increasingly CAD files and three-dimensional CAD models comprise a unique component of our digital archives - and one which it may not be possible to reproduce on paper. This Guide offers a basic description of computer-aided drafting or computer-aided design (CAD) software, discussions on the use of CAD in a variety of situations, descriptions of data acquisition methods including field survey and direct object scanning, and good practices in the use of the software. As well as providing a source of useful generic information, the guide emphasises the processes of long-term preservation, archiving, and effective data re-use. An important aim of the Guide is to introduce practitioners to areas and issues for which applicable standards and frameworks already exist and to identify the relevant sources of information that may be consulted.

Also available online at: http://guides.archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/g2gp/Cad_Toc

Excavations at Glasgow Cathedral 1988-1997

Stephen Driscoll. Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph 18, 2002 (ISBN 1 902653 66 1)

This volume describes the most extensive modern excavations undertaken at any Scottish cathedral. These investigations revealed traces of two 12rth-century cathedrals which preceded the present gothic structure. Too little was exposed of the first cathedral to allow it to be reconstructed with any confidence, but there was more evidence of the second cathedral which was begun in the late 12th century. Though never completed, this building was intended to house the translated remains of St Kentigern (Mungo) and the recovery of a number of brightly painted stones allows us to appreciate the rich decoration of the cathedral interior for the first time. Medieval wall paintings from Scotland are rare, so these discoveries are of particular significance for the study of 12th-century Scottish architecture. Considerable evidence relating to the 13th- and 14th-century construction of the cathedral and its post-medieval remodelling has also been assembled.

Burials of various periods were examined, the oldest of which date to the 7th-8th century and most recent to the 19th century. In particular, numerous burials were excavated in the nave, many dating to the high Middle Ages. They provide unique insights into the populations and burial practices of medieval and post-medieval Glasgow. Grave finds include a personal seal matrix and two massive bronze mortars and a pestle which were discovered in the crypt where presumably they were hidden at the time of the Reformation. Nothing comparable to these mortars survives in Scotland and they raise interesting questions about liturgical practice and religious patronage.

The report provides an historical context for the various periods of activity examined and acts as a powerful reminder of Scotland's lost ecclesiastical glory.

Alba: the Gaelic Kingdom of Scotland AD 800-1124

Stephen Driscoll. (Birlinn/Historic Scotland) 2002, 2006. ISBN: 9781841581453

In AD800 Scotland was shared between four peoples: the powerful kingdom of the Picts, who held sway over most of the landmass of Scotland; the kingdom of Dalriada in Argyll; the kingdom of the Britons in Strathclyde; and the divided and declining kingdom of Northumbria. The irruptions of the Vikings were only just beginning.

By 1124 a powerful feudal kingdom had been established based in Edinburgh and descended from the kings of Dalriada. Gaels and Vikings fought for supremacy in the Western Isles and the kingdoms of the Picts and the Britons had disappeared. The relationship between the kingdom of the Scots and the recently established Norman dynasty to the south had still to be resolved, but the lines of Scotland's future development were now clear.

This then was a period of revolution which established a new nation. It is arguably one of the most important of all in Scottish history. And yet it is one of the least known... 

In the Shadow of the Brochs: the Iron Age in Scotland

Beverley Ballin Smith and Iain Banks (eds.) 2002. Tempus. Paperback: 256 pages ISBN-13: 978-0752425177

This major work is a statement of Scottish Iron Age studies at the start of a new millenium. Some 20 experts range over many aspects of the subject, from structural remains to society, economy, and scientific data. The indispensible result is both authoritative and readable.