7.2 The Chronological Framework of Scotland’s Iron Age

Important to the ongoing debate is of course when the Iron Age begins and ends. The date 600BC was used by the Royal Commission on the Historic and Ancient Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) for the inception of the Iron Age in Scotland and used in its Argyll Inventories (RCAHMS; 1971, 1975, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1992). Some researchers, such as Harding and the Ritchies, have argued for an earlier C7th-C8th BC date and it has become increasingly common to discuss the late Bronze Age/early Iron Age together with no hard delineation between the periods (Harding 1974; Ritchie and Ritchie 1981, Hunter and Ralston 2015). Similarly, the termination of the Iron Age in Scotland is often framed by the broader agendas of individual researchers; whereby the Roman invasion in the C1st AD or their withdrawal from their northern frontier in the C3rd AD have been used. This period, in a modified form, is still used by some researchers in order to distinguish the Picts from earlier Iron Age cultures (Piggott 1966; Hingley 1992, Armit 1997; Armit and Ralston 2003,). However, it has become increasingly common to view Scotland’s Iron Age as part of a much longer period of development with the adoption of the ‘long Iron Age’ seen by some to continue until the arrival of the Norse in the late C8th AD with the traditionally defined Iron Age ‘merging imperceptibly’ into the Early Medieval period (Armit 1997). This has led towards a more integrated study across inherited chronological boundaries as epitomised by the First Millennia Studies Group. The breaking down of inherited chronological boundaries in recent research perhaps suggests there is no need for a universally accepted chronological scheme for the Scottish Iron Age, although this paper will adopt age brackets of 800BC to AD400, to dovetail with the earlier and later period discussions.