Shepherd, A. N., ed. (1998). The Cleaven Dyke and Littleour: Monuments in the Neolithic of Tayside. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

The first part of this chapter is concerned with Neolithic and Early Bronze Age activity in Tayside. Most work has concentrated on chambered tombs and the distribution of artefacts due to the absence of easily identifiable settlement evidence. Aerial photography has identified at least 16 cursus monuments in addition to many henges or hengiform enclosures. The second part of the chapter deals in some detail with pollen studies at Rae Loch. The pollen profile suggests that prehistoric activity was undertaken in an environment which continued to be heavily wooded right up to c 2920 BP (1120 cal BC), but that the late Iron Age and Roman periods witnessed considerable farming activity, including that of an arable nature.

This chapter considers the date of construction of the dyke, its alignment and patterns of construction. In spite of marked variation in structural detail the Cleaven Dyke is markedly consistent in its alignment. The most obvious pattern, evident throughout, is the dimensional relationship between the central bank, the ditches, and the intervening berms - a pattern which is modified only by the increasing degree of irregularity in the SE sections. The possible astronomical alignment and the labour required to build the Cleaven Dyke are considered.

This chapter comprises technical reports including contour models, digital terrain modelling, geophysical survey and a section on estimating soil loss from cropmark sites using the caesium 137 methodology.

This chapter discusses the building sequence, the choice of terrain and alignment, the nature of the environment at the time of construction, function and purpose. Other Neolithic monuments which relate to Cleaven Dyke are discussed. These comprise round/oval mounds and long mounds. Littleour is compared with structures from Balfarg and elsewhere. The chapter concludes with a section on the significance of the Grooved Ware from Littleour.

This volume describes two monuments which form part of the rich Neolithic presence in Tayside, now Perthshire and Angus. The long linear monument of the Cleaven Dyke, whose bank and flanking ditches run for 2 km across the Perthshire countryside was for some centuries confidently identified as a Roman construction, linked to the nearby legionary fortress of Inchtuthil. The authors' surveys and excavations together with reinterpretation of earlier work, have relocated it decisively in its correct place, built as part of the Neolithic cursus monument tradition sometime around the late 5th-mid/late 4th millennium cal BC. The volume presents the detailed results of their study, in particular the segmented nature of the Dyke's construction, together with palaeoenvironmental background to the area and a survey of the range of cursus monuments and related barrow forms. In addition, the survey and excavation of the nearby rectilinear timber enclosure of Littleour is described and placed in its context of similar structures, both roofed and unroofed, in the late 4th to early 3rd millennia cal BC; its use a millennium later for the disposal within pits of lithics and Grooved Ware again raises questions of the nature and significance of late Neolithic ceremonial practices.