Scotland During The Roman Empire - Iron Age Culture in Scotland

Iron Age Culture in Scotland

Ptolemy's tribes located north of the Forth-Clyde isthmus include the Cornovii in Caithness, the Caereni, Smertae, Carnonacae, Decantae, Lugi and Creones also north of the Great Glen, the Taexali in the north-east, the Epidii in Argyll, the Venicones in Fife, the Caledonii in the central Highlands and the Vacomagi centred near Strathmore. It is likely that all of these cultures spoke a form of Celtic language known as Pritennic. The occupants of southern Scotland were the Damnonii in the Clyde valley, the Novantae in Galloway, the Selgovae on the south coast and the Votadini to the east. These peoples may have spoken a form of Brythonic language.

Despite the discovery of many hundreds of Iron Age sites in Scotland there is still a great deal that remains to be explained about the nature of the Celtic life in the early Christian era. Unfortunately radiocarbon dating for this period is problematic and chronological sequences are poorly understood. For a variety of reasons much of the archaeological work to date in Scotland has concentrated on the islands of the west and north and both excavations and analysis of societal structures on the mainland are more limited in scope.

The peoples of early Iron Age Scotland, particularly in the north and west, lived in substantial stone buildings called Atlantic roundhouses. The remains of hundreds of these houses exist throughout the country, some merely piles of rubble, others with impressive towers and outbuildings. They date from about 800 BC to AD 300 with the most imposing structures having been created circa 200–100 BC. The most massive constructions that date from this time are the circular broch towers. On average, the ruins only survive up to a few metres above ground level, although there are five extant examples of towers whose walls still exceed 6.5 m (21 ft) in height. There are at least 100 broch sites in Scotland. Despite extensive research, their purpose and the nature of the societies that created them are still a matter of debate.

In some parts of Iron Age Scotland, quite unlike almost all of recorded history right up to the present day, there does not seem to have been an hierarchical elite. Studies have shown that these stone roundhouses, with massively thick walls must have contained virtually the entire population of islands such as Barra and North Uist. Iron Age settlement patterns in Scotland are not homogenous, but in these places there is no sign of a privileged class living in large castles or forts, or of an elite priestly caste or of peasants with no access to the kind of accommodation enjoyed by the middle classes.

Over 400 souterrains have been discovered in Scotland, many of them in the south-east, and although few have been dated those that have suggest a construction date in the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD. Unfortunately the purpose of these small underground structures is also obscure. They are usually found close to settlements (whose timber frames are much less well-preserved) and may have been for storing perishable agricultural products.

Scotland also has numerous vitrified forts but again an accurate chronology has proven to be evasive. Extensive studies of such a fort at Finavon Hill near Forfar in Angus, using a variety of techniques, suggest dates for the destruction of the site in either the last two centuries BC, or the mid-1st millennium AD. The lack of Roman artefacts (common in local souterrain sites) suggests that many sites were abandoned before the arrival of the legions.

Unlike the earlier Neolithic and Bronze Ages, which have provided massive monuments to the dead, Iron Age burial sites in Scotland are rare, and a recent find at Dunbar may provide further insight into the culture of this period. A similar site of a warrior's grave at Alloa has been provisionally dated to AD 90–130. A traveller called Demetrius of Tarsus related to Plutarch the tale of an expedition to the west coast in or shortly before AD 83. He stated that it was "a gloomy journey amongst uninhabited islands", but that he had visited one which was the retreat of holy men. He mentioned neither the druids nor the name of the island.