The following have been identified as key future research areas and issues:
- Modelling of the effects of climate change on agricultural potential, and of human responses to climate change – ie the resilience of past societies and their abilities to adapt.
- Regional variation in the effects of climate change
- More frequent and more detailed pollen diagrams
- Study of sea level change in this period, with the southerm Moray Firth being a particular focus
- Multi-scalar studies of diachronic variation in a range of variables (site types, find types etc) to consider issues of the nature and visibility of regionality and the explanation of spatially-constrained phenomena. A key aspect of this is the definition of local “types” of site type or artefact
- Attempts to define relict boundaries from studies of Medieval charter evidence or later parish boundaries
- The nature and chronology of enclosure systems and their link to hillforts
- The need to excavate fields in plan, not section, to understand their character
- Study of some of the well-defined field terrace to characterise their date and nature
- Seasonality in landscape and site use
- Integrated landscape study, considering not just settlements but the agricultural landscape, use of other resources, location of votive deposits etc
- Further study of inherited landscapes
- Integration of the idea of waterscapes into Iron Age landscape studies