Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 138

A discussion of the range and nature of the evidence for Iron Age society in Dumfries and Galloway west of the Nith, considering affinities with other areas, particularly the Atlantic regions to the north, and exploring the reasons for the form and distribution of Iron Age monuments in the area. It is argued that a reanalysis of our definition and interpretation of fundamental characteristics of later prehistoric society, such as domestic monumentality, may be rewarding in heterogeneous and unsorted areas such as Galloway.

Discusses such aspects of Scottish rotary quern use as handling systems (particularly horizontal slot-handled querns), decoration and an unrecognised class of miniature examples. The growing corpus of rotary querns is starting to reveal regional patternings and concentrations of particular decorative styles. This ongoing investigation is argued to suggest that the picture is more complex than previously understood. Includes Appendix 1: Decorated querns from Scotland.

Note on a comb held in the collections of the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, collected by the Danish governor in the Faroe Island, Christian Pløyen, when he visited Shetland in 1839.

Paper in two parts; the first takes the form of addenda and corrigenda (mainly of an antiquarian nature) to the author's catalogue of Viking Age and Late Norse gold and silver from Scotland (Graham-Campbell 1995). The second part brings together (and catalogues) all the relevant finds that have either been discovered or newly recognised during the decade since its publication (to 2006).

A comparison is reported of cartographic studies that have been made of the burgage plots in Edinburgh, Canongate, St Andrews and Perth. The results confirm and extend those of earlier studies of St Andrews and Perth. In particular, the presence of plots differing in width by quarter-widths is confirmed. The earlier reports of some plots not complying with this scheme are discussed, and it is demonstrated that the plot widths in the four burghs all do in fact conform. It is suggested that the plots were set out to these varying widths rather than the pattern resulting form later subdivision and amalgamation of plots of uniform width. Possible measurement units which may have been used in setting out the plots are discussed. A systematic pattern of the closes used to access the backlands is reported and it is suggested that a degree of central control is likely to have been exercised over their positioning.

Brotchie's steading is a ruined croft house from which several large fragments of worked whale mandible were recently recovered. These were identified as having supported the roof of the building as a pair of cruck blades (a Highland couple).\r\n\r\nThe excavation programme was initially designed to further examine the role of whale bones as a construction material within the context of the Caithness croft house. Excavations in 2001 revealed a further element of in situ whale bone that enabled an informed reconstruction of the original structure. The investigations on site also identified at least 1.5m of stratigraphy exposed in the bank to the west of the site, indicating at least four phases of building beneath the ruined croft house. \r\n\r\nSubsequent trial trenching determined that the bank upon which Brotchie's steading now sits is largely man-made and part of an extensive settlement mound. The base of the sequence, in the southern part of the site, revealed what appears to have been an occupation surface, and material from this provided a date in the range 390-170BC. At the north end of the site a thick layer of stone rubble associated with a clay- and stone-lined pit and two red deer antler picks was identified. Radiocarbon determination of samples of antler and cow bone indicate further occupation of the site in the first-third centuries AD. The overlying strata supported by a sequence of radiocarbon dates and finds indicate that the site was also a focus of human activity in the fifth, thirteenth and fifteenth centuries AD up until the early twentieth century. While the full extent of the site is currently unknown, the possibility presents itself that the adjacent knoll, upon which Dunnet Kirk now sits, forms a part of a major archaeological site that has seen almost continuous, or at least regular, occupation for over two millennia. Includes sections on: The whale bone cruck couple; The pottery; The carbonised plant remains; A short note on the faunal remains.