Neolithic Scotland: Timber, Stone, Earth and Fire by Gordon
Noble
Edinburgh University Press Ltd, 2006, 262 pp, 143
figs, ISBN-10 0 7486 2338 8 (£22.99)
It is 22 years since Ian Kinnes’s review of the Scottish Neolithic (1985), produced
in what was to Noble a ‘standstill’ period of interest in Scottish prehistory (p.
236). In that time, we have seen three books dedicated to this period (Ashmore 1996,
Barclay 1998 and the present one), in contrast to the preceding century which saw
only Joseph Anderson’s Rhind Lectures on the Bronze and Stone Ages (1886), synoptic
volumes by such as Childe, Piggott, and the Ritchies apart. Pressures on young academics
and a material increase in activity in the field are no doubt responsible for this
late efflorescence.
This is a brave, but limited, attempt to characterise the Scottish Neolithic in
terms of current methodological concerns. In the blurb, Colin Richards praises its
emphasis on ‘materiality’, yet the text is notable for its unsure handling of material
culture in general and pottery in particular. Noble does set down a coherent thesis,
although one that draws in places too heavily on developments in England.
Briefly, the nine chapters cover an introduction to Scottish Neolithic studies and
the geography of Scotland; ‘islands in the fast lane’, which postulates an early
role for west-coast islands in settlement; ‘burning down the house’, in which fire
is much to the fore in the end-game of buildings and monuments; ‘planting trees,
planting people’ on long and round barrows in eastern Scotland; Megalithic Architecture
in the west; the emergence of monument complexes; the architecture of monumental
landscapes and the Early Bronze Age, followed by a brief conclusion.
The introduction quotes as model Childe’s Prehistory of Scotland (1935) which aimed
at a wider public and eschewed ‘detailed technical studies’ for the presentation
of an (albeit) provisional view. Noble is certainly bold in attempting to define
regional sequences congruent with most, but by no means all, current views on the
Scottish Neolithic, although it is strange that he omits to reference Anna Ritchie’s
work when listing syntheses on Orkney (p. 2: Ritchie 1995). In many ways, the split
is traditional – Atlantic seafarers and east-coast timber monuments (but with no
Perthshire E-W melting pot which to me characterises that great area’s archaeology).
Chronologically speaking, the division is simple: at 3300 BC (p. 15) between the
Mesolithic-Neolithic transition to the early Neolithic and the later, Grooved Ware-influenced
later Neolithic. It is here that Noble deserts the use of pottery, which might rather
suggest three phases, for a simpler early-late, monument-related chronology. He
is, however, unwise to simplify matters to the extent of characterising Unstan Ware
as a ‘local style of Impressed Ware’ (p. 15).
He picks up Alison Sheridan’s bid for possible Breton links to Beacharra (2004),
but misses Kinnes’s droll commentary on it (2004). The implications of the burning
down of complicated timber structures such as halls must wait until the third chapter
(the creation of memories), but the section on lithics (p. 20) is deficient in missing
Alan Saville’s work at Boddam on behalf of the National Museums of Scotland (Bridgland
et al. 1997). The point about clearance being found ‘under’ the long barrow at Dalladies
(p. 21) is wrong – the evidence came from the turf within the mound. The solution
to the Thomas/Barclay debate on sedentism is apparently a recognition of the ‘regionalised
nature of the Neolithic’ (p. 22), but confusion follows from the qualification:
‘even when houses were present a level of mobility in settlement strategies may
still have existed’.
The second chapter promotes the western seaways approach to colonisation and is
good on the ‘technologies of the sea’ that small island communities would have practised
across the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition (p. 24) – as they still do. There is
a welcome re-assertion of the primacy of the Western Isles (p. 29) in this process,
although it remains an assertion, for he does not articulate expressly the implications
of this process, nor does he speculate on the likely continental origins of such
traffic. The map supporting this point showing the major sea routes in the Irish
Sea is a shocker, but is only one of a series of poorly-reproduced line drawings
(including the C14 tables) that the publisher has seen fit to inflict on its customers
– the half-tones pass muster, just.
The overlap between Mesolithic and Neolithic in NE Scotland is discounted in a sentence:
this is rash for while there may not always be direct inter-site overlap (and there
is generally a big time-gap), areas such as Deeside, for example, do furnish Mesolithic
evidence from the haughs of the river and Neolithic material from the immediately
adjacent terraces. Balbridie itself sits a mere kilometre from significant microlith
scatters, while the recent work at Warren Field, Crathes, has apparently produced
a Mesolithic pit alignment reused in the Neolithic (British Archaeology,
March/April
2007, 7). Spurryhillock, Stonehaven, at least is another contender for direct overlap
(Alexander 1997). The discussion of agriculture is mildly confusing, but Noble makes
the obvious case for the likely complexity of its onset.
The next three chapters explore the regionality of the Scottish Neolithic, beginning
with one on the role of fire in ending timber (invariably oak) structures such as
cursus monuments, mortuary enclosures, timber halls, and other forms of enclosure.
Although the chapter’s epigraph is from Douglas, on ritual enlivening memory, the
statement that ‘these structures were aimed at creating social unity at times when
this was threatened’ (p. 45) is not expanded and remains contentious. There is,
however, a useful discussion of whether the firing could have been accidental or
deliberate; Noble is surely correct to conclude, based on SE European evidence,
that it was the result of a conscious decision on the part of Neolithic people.
He also addresses the debate on the nature of such halls as Balbridie or Claish,
and follows Topping in suggesting that they were ‘constructed to house large social
gatherings of regional significance’ (p. 59). The role of pit groups surely gives
the lie to the impression of a sporadic kind of settlement, although it is a pity
that Noble did not pick up on the extraordinarily diverse range of cereals recovered
from the very large pits on Dubton Farm, Angus (rather buried by its appearance
in a journal lacking an exchange system, but meriting much wider knowledge: Cameron
2002), and was writing before the bountiful results of the Kintore open-area excavations
were available (Cook & Dunbar 2004) which have vastly increased the population of
Neolithic pottery in the NE. Whether the elision of houses with larger enclosures
under the term ‘symbolic houses’ is valid remains to be established, but Noble presents
a good argument for seeing the houses themselves as involved in the ‘creation of
memories of people, places and events’.
The following chapter, 4, turns to the long and round barrows of eastern Scotland,
and plunges immediately into detailed discussion of English type-sites such as Fussell’s
Lodge or Aldwincle. This is necessary, Noble avers, because interpretation of Scottish
monuments has been dominated by considerations of sites from outside Scotland. It
would perhaps have been refreshing not to have gone down this particular first-year
undergraduate road, particularly as the presentation of the Scottish data is contentious
enough. (It should be said that the illustrations to this chapter are particularly
nasty.)
One Scottish site that is reinterpreted is the long barrow of Dalladies. Writing
as a witness to the excavation, albeit 36 years on (and one who found the cup-marked
slab on a re-visit organised in response to an urgent plea for assistance from his
professor who had run out of the time allotted for the excavation), I am unhappy
at the characterisation offered. While it is true that the approach to the rescue
excavation of this Wiltshire-looking long barrow may have had elements of the Wessex
of the 1950s – eg, reliance on a squad of labourers for the heavy spading – the
co-directors, Trevor Watkins and Mary-Jane Mountain played a major role in the interpretation
and recording. While it is also true that the final stages of recording relied on
a scratch crew of Edinburgh graduates, including Audrey Henshall and Margaret Stewart,
I do not think that the report merits the description ‘confusing and contradictory’
(p. 83). Certainly, the D-shape of the large post-holes does invite comparison with
those at Lochhill, Slewcairn and Pitnacree, but the issue is whether the post-pipes
identified were secondary, which Noble argues they are. Piggott’s discussion was
governed by the model of a pitch-roofed mortuary house such as was believed to be
at Wayland’s Smithy, but I am sure he would have happily acknowledged the possibility
being argued, particularly as, since then, we have seen an increased awareness of
the Scottish evidence, reflected in Noble, as well as Haddenham-inspired thoughts
of virgin forests. Such thoughts are developed by Noble into an argument against
the use of exposure platforms at these sites, but rather for the split tree as a
symbol of decay, with the dead being offered to where the tree had decayed (p. 93).
There follows an interesting discussion of the role of trees and woodland in Neolithic
life, concluding that the tree represented ‘a potent symbol of vitality ... permanence
... continuity’ (p. 101).
Chapter 5 considers megalithic architecture in Atlantic Scotland and plots (p.103)
Henshall’s groups of chambered cairns in what is really the only attempt to portray
graphically the regionalism that is one of the themes of the book. Noble draws on
Corcoran and Scott’s work on the multi-phased nature of tomb construction to suggest
changing attitudes to the dead in Neolithic society (p. 104). He argues a progression
in thought and ritual from the deposition of the dead in essentially closed tombs
to the need to use these remains in subsequent rituals, requiring forecourts, facades
and access to them. This is interpreted, after Barrett, as denoting the rise of
ancestral rites in which the ‘presence of the dead is established amongst the affairs
of the living’ (p.132). The architectural implications of this postulated change
from funerary to ancestral rituals are then tracked across the various well-known
tomb groups to the conclusion that they represent ‘a long-term commitment to a place’
(p.137).
This provides a convenient opening to the next chapter, 6, the emergence of monument
complexes in the late Neolithic, in which it is argued that they developed in areas
of important natural routeways. Noble rather retreats from his previous positive
Early/Late division of the Neolithic by stressing the ‘time-depth of the activities
that occurred in these landscapes’ (p.140). He then offers ‘a tour’ of some of the
major archaeological landscapes of Scotland. Although he specifically disavows completeness,
and includes Balfarg, North Mains, Cairnpapple, the upper Clyde, Meldon Bridge,
Kilmartin, Machrie Moor, Callanish, Stenness/Brodgar and Dunragit, I still think
it regrettable that he omitted the Fintray/lower Don landscape of Aberdeenshire,
particularly after featuring its cursus in full colour on the cover (a photograph
this reviewer must claim). This river leads past the cursus, a possible hall, and
a massive ring ditch to the ceremonial complex of Broomend of Crichie, currently
under excavation by Richard Bradley (Shepherd & Greig 1996, 72-3, 77, 68, 70).
This chapter develops into a discussion of the lack of division between the ritual
and domestic in ordinary prehistoric life, following Bradley. Where Noble gets things
wrong here is in uncritically accepting the views of other Bradley students, such
as Colin Richards, whose howler over the allegedly specialised use of House 7 at
Skara Brae, refuted entirely by Clarke (2003 – wrong date cited by Noble) and Shepherd,
A.N. (2000), is repeated rashly (p. 200). There are other incongruities, such as
the comparison of the Beckton, Lockerbie houses with the much larger henge monument
at Balfarg (p. 202) – superficially alike as plans but surely grossly different
in scale and purpose. In arguing for a regional Neolithic, there is a surprising
lack of use of evidence such as carved stone balls, whose distribution was so heavily
eastern and congruent with Pictish symbol stones as to mislead Childe (Clarke 2003,
85).
Noble makes good use of pollen cores from the vicinity of the monument complexes
he identifies, but in omitting to discuss Kevin Edwards’s work at Dinnet in the
Howe of Cromar (Edwards 1979), leaves the reader wondering if he does not count
its two long cairns, and other features such as the Tomnaverie stone circle as a
monument complex. Perhaps not.
Chapter 8 introduces the early Bronze Age as a ‘deliberate attempt to break from
the traditions of the past’ (p. 221), with a re-orientation from the Atlantic west
to a focus on Europe across the North Sea, predicated on the appearance of beakers
and cognate burial rites.
As characterised above, this is a brave, if limited exposition. Lacking confidence
in exploring the rich artefactual heritage of the Neolithic in Scotland, this cannot
be recommended as the complete book on Neolithic Scotland.
Ian A G Shepherd
Planning and Environmental Services
Aberdeenshire Council
References
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early Mesolithic material of possible Mesolithic date at Spurryhillock, Stonehaven,
Aberdeenshire, Proceedings Society Antiquaries Scotland 127, 17-27
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139- 42
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Institute, 139-58
Shepherd, I.A.G. & Greig, M.K. 1996. Grampian’s Past: its archaeology from the air.
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of Practice, Oxford: Oxbow, 9-21
Review Submitted: April 2007
The views expressed in this review are not necessarily those
of the Society or the Reviews Editor.
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