The Early Medieval Kingdoms of Scotland: A Palaeoecological Approach To Understanding
Samantha Jones, (University of Aberdeen)
Since Roman withdrawal from Britain in the late 5th century AD until the formation of Alba in the 9th-10th centuries AD, the early Medieval kingdoms of Scotland developed complex, highly stratified societies. A lack of integrated multidisciplinary studies however, means very little is known about these societies or how they functioned during social or political change. As part of the Comparative Kingship Project, palaeoecological analysis (C14, pollen & geochemical) was completed from three locations close to archaeological sites spanning the early Medieval Period.
Sites include 1) a valley fen at Rhynie in eastern Scotland close to a 5th-6th century Pictish enclosure and Pictish symbol stones. The enclosure doesn’t appear to have been in use after the 6th century AD but little is known about the chronology of human activity in the wider landscape.
2) Loch of Leys crannog in eastern Scotland. The site was selected because excavations revealed phases of occupation during the late Roman Iron Age (1st-2nd centuries AD) and in the 9th-10th centuries AD.
3) A peat deposit on the island of Iona in western Scotland. The island is renowned for its early monastery founded in ~AD 563. The island also experienced Viking raids during the 8th-9th centuries AD and may have been influenced by later Norse settlement.
A lack of historical records between the 8th to 11th centuries for Scotland, however, means our knowledge about societies living in Scotland during this period is severely limited. The main objectives of the palaeoecological analysis has therefore been to fill in some of these knowledge gaps and to gain a more robust understanding of the socio-political landscapes as the kingdoms of northern Britain and Ireland took shape. This paper presents, with the support of the available historical and archaeological resources, the preliminary findings from the three sites investigated so far.
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