Since the middle of the last century, aerial survey across the East Lothian coastal plain has led to the recording of hundreds of cropmarks on the coastal plain to add to the upstanding earthworks. Many of these plough-levelled sites take the form of ditched enclosures of broadly circular or curvilinear form, generally assumed on the basis of excavated examples elsewhere to be of later prehistoric date. Within the general class of curvilinear enclosures, there is enormous variety, both in their morphology, scale and details of occupation.
Vast differences in size are evident, from small enclosures (0.5ha) that cannot have accommodated more than a single house, to sites that may have been packed full of households (1ha). As Cowley reminds us within the ‘rag-bag’ mass of predominately curvilinear (circular and oval) enclosures, the potential date range and associations are manifold (2009). And we must always consider the artificial distinctions created by upstanding earthworks and plough-levelled sites. Indeed, as Cowley (2009) reminds us, the two main characteristics of the settlement enclosures of the mid to late 1st millennium BC are variety in form and very individual site histories. Specialisation and variability in enclosure functions is likely and there is a wide range in settlement size.
Once again, East Lothian takes centre stage in our discussions where since the 1980 numerous curvilinear enclosures have been excavated, including St Germains, Broxmouth, Dryburn Bridge, Fishers Road East, Fishers Road West, West Loan, Eweford and Whittingehame Tower. These sites yielded evidence of inhabitation in the 1st millennium BC continuing to varying degrees into the early 1st millennium AD, showing that in broad terms the lifetime of curvilinear enclosures overlapped with hillforts such as Traprain Law.