4.4.1 Introduction

The evidence for Neolithic settlement in south-east Scotland ranges in nature from the two massive, superimposed, roughly rectangular communal houses (so-called ‘halls’), at Doon Hill, East Lothian (Ralston 2019a; 2019b; in press) to a small number of Neolithic lithic finds, assumed to relate to domestic activities, that were found in the same area as an earlier, Late Mesolithic lithic scatter at Musselburgh Primary Care Centre (Kirby 2020; SESARF Mesolithic case study ). Between these two extremes, most of the evidence consists of pits that are assumed to have been related to domestic occupation as, for example, at Maybury Business Park, Edinburgh (Moloney and Lawson 2006). In a few cases such as at The Hirsel, Scottish Borders, traces of structures have been found (Cramp 2014). Almost invariably, the remains are severely truncated by ploughing.

With some sites, it is difficult to assess what kind of activity is attested. For example, the Neolithic pottery from the coastal sites of East Lothian, listed in the table 4.2 below, appear to be associated with ‘midden’ material including seashells, but the ‘middens’ are also associated with Chalcolithic and/or Early Bronze Age Beaker pottery. None of the ‘midden’ material has been radiocarbon-dated to confirm its chronological position.

Furthermore, in the case of lithic scatters, it cannot automatically be assumed that these relate to settlement activity. However, they could constitute the last remaining evidence of settlement when all other traces have been destroyed. There is no overall listing of the Neolithic lithic scatters in south-east Scotland, and so this potential source of information remains to be investigated.

Using distributional data of stray finds of artefacts as an indicator of settlement patterns can potentially be useful, but at the same time slightly risky. Arrowheads could have been lost during hunting expeditions at some distance from a settlement, for example. Similarly, some stone axeheads could have been lost in transit from their places of manufacture, or else deliberately deposited away from settlements – the latter being the likely practice with the Early Neolithic axeheads of jadeitite and other Alpine rocks. However, it is probably safe to assume that most of the approximately 300 stone axeheads that have been found in south-east Scotland were lost or discarded in, or close to, settlements (SESARF 4.5 Material Culture)

What we can say is that there is a tendency for Neolithic settlements to be located close to the coast and along river valleys, mostly but not exclusively, in areas where the best agricultural land is located.

Did Neolithic people live in upland areas of south-east Scotland, on either a permanent or a temporary basis? Researchers have to rely mostly on palaeoenvironmental and aerial photography evidence, since the rarity of ploughed ground makes it virtually impossible to undertake fieldwalking to detect artefact scatters. In some areas, afforestation has made field survey of any kind difficult. The palaeoenvironmental evidence (Tipping 2010; SESARF 2.7 Neolithic Landscape) indicates that, for the Bowmont Valley and the Cheviot Hills, ‘There is no unambiguous evidence [during the Early Neolithic] for settlement, no crops and no use of fire’ (Tipping 2010, 170). Tipping has also argued that transhumance in these areas – the relocation of domesticated animals into upland pastures during the summer – would have been unnecessary during the Early Neolithic. There are, however, indications from pollen evidence for the cultivation of barley on Swindon Hill and on well drained plateaux in the Cheviot Hills from the Late Neolithic (from around 2850 cal BC: Tipping 2010, 171).

There is, however, some aerial photography evidence for Early Neolithic activity in the highland areas, including a recently-identified cursus monument at Upper Whitfield, Scottish Borders (Halliday 2022). Moreover, some of the Early Neolithic long mounds, such as The Mutiny Stones, Scottish Borders, are in highland locations (Henshall 1972, 404), so we cannot rule out the possibility that parts of the highland areas were indeed occupied. This raises the question of how far from a monument people would have been living. Occasional stray finds, including the large, special-purpose ‘Cumbrian club’ axehead made of Great Langdale tuff found at Upper Hindhope, provide additional evidence for the Early Neolithic presence of people in the highland areas.

It remains to be seen whether any of the many burnt mounds found by field survey in south-east Scotland, for example around the Megget Reservoir, Scottish Borders, are of Neolithic date (Ward 2004).

We do not have enough period-specific data to discern any trends in settlement location over the course of the Neolithic, although the presence of Middle and Late Neolithic pottery on the coastal sites of East Lothian is potentially significant, since it raises the question as to whether short-term occupation on the coast might indicate a shift away from the Early Neolithic aversion to exploiting marine resources.

The settlement evidence is summarised in Table 4.2 and the interactive map below.