- Considered broadly, on a nationwide basis, the character of Bronze Age agriculture and subsistence appears to have changed over time. There was a general shift from the cultivation of wheat to that of barley, while analysis of skeletal remains from the earliest Bronze Age – the Chalcolithic – suggests a move towards pastoralism and the raising of livestock. This appears to have been coupled with the exclusion of marine resources from the diet. Bronze Age agriculture left its mark upon the landscape: increasingly, the land was organised into fields through the raising of banks and walls and perhaps also the digging of ditches. This may explain why Late Bronze Age metalwork deposition can often focus on boundaries, as they were difficult liminal places that required negotiation and reaffirmation on a regular basis.
- Just how true are these observations when applied to South West Scotland? Faunal remains from the Chalcolithic are rare. Those that are recorded are either lost or were recovered by antiquarians, so their context is often dubious. Organic evidence, in particular palae-environmental remains of food crops, is also rare, but modern developer-led excavations are helping us to understand how the region compares with the wider picture.
- One aspect which is well-attested in South West Scotland is how the agricultural landscape was organised. Excavations at Machrie North, Tormore and Kilpatrick in the environs of Machrie Moor revealed evidence for field systems, surviving as traces of earth-and-stone banks. Most of the upstanding features could be dated to the Middle or Late Bronze Age, though there was the potential for earlier origins during the Chalcolithic or even potentially to the closing stages of the Neoltihic. In other locations, the use of boundary ditches has been inferred during excavations, such as the long ditch identified at Barassie.
- Unfortunately, there are very few places where levels of preservation are sufficient to identify and confirm the remains of Bronze Age land organisation without intrusive investigations. While numerous fragmentary field systems were identified by Scott-Elliott in upland areas of the region, these could potentially be much later in date, relating to Iron Age, or even later, agricultural activities.
- An important discovery made during the excavations at Machrie North, Tormore and Kilpatrick was evidence for Bronze Age use of the ard. This is a light hand-held plough used to break the ground in order to allow arable cultivation. Various sub-species of barley are often encountered on Bronze Age sites, including naked barley, hulled barley and six-eared barley. Evidence of how these crops may have been processed and stored came in an unusual discovery at Tormore, Arran. Here carbonised grain was recovered in sufficient quantities from a circular structure to suggest the presence of a granary. The excavator argued that the area in front of the building might have functioned as the place where crops were processed. Also recovered from this site was very rare Bronze Age evidence for a form of wheat (emmer).
- Dense concentrations of barley – including both the naked and six-eared varieties – were also recorded during the excavations at Hunterston (Gordon and Turner forthcoming). Due to the complex stratigraphy, it was not however, possible to determine whether these derived from Neolithic or Bronze Age occupation of the site. The grains would have been ground into flour using stone saddle querns, an example of which was also recovered from Hunterston. Because this form remained unchanged from the Neolithic until well into the Iron Age, assigning this form of quern a Bronze Age date is entirely reliant on context. Evidence of barley processing was also recovered from the entrance of an excavated roundhouse at Aird Quarry though here the quantities were much smaller.
- Evidence for domestic animals remains elusive. Unburnt animal bone does not survive well across the region, and burnt animal bone is often so fragmented that it can only be identified down to a general level, such as large ungulate (cow or deer) or small ungulate (goat or sheep). Tormore proved an exception to the rule. The excavations there uncovered the complete remains of a young cow in the same burnt roundhouse that produced the quantities of burnt barley. This shows that cattle were being raised, though at this point they do not appear to have been used as draught animals. It is also possible that the hide sheath recovered in association with the bronze dagger from the grave at Lockerbie Academy was composed of cow hide, although the use of deer hide could not be discounted (Sheridan and Northover 2011).
- The use of wild resources appears to shrink within the Bronze Age, but there is some evidence that wild plants were still used for food or other purposes. Charred hazelnuts are still recovered from Bronze Age contexts, though they occur in much smaller quantities than during the Neolithic. Wild plants could also potentially have been gathered as bedding or fodder for domesticated animals, and it is possible that certain tree species were deliberately managed in order to provide suitable materials for building the wattle panels, which appear to have formed part of roundhouse construction.