While the overall trajectory of pottery development can be traced for Scotland as a whole, and for regions within Scotland, several questions remain:
- The chronology of ceramic developments needs to be improved further
- Regional imbalances in our knowledge need to be addressed (notably in Shetland and the north-west mainland of Scotland)
- Was there any chronological overlap (and/or any sharing of design features) between the use of Impressed Ware and Grooved Ware on mainland Scotland? Or of Grooved Ware and Beaker?
- Was all pottery manufacture organised on a small-scale, settlement basis? Did any pottery move around between settlements, or farther afield? More characterisation studies (eg using ceramic thin sectioning) need to be undertaken
- Can any regional or temporal trends in traditions of pot manufacture be identified?
- The beginnings and ends of Grooved Ware use in Scotland need to be clarified. The sequence at Pool (where evolution of Grooved Ware from a previous style of pottery can be traced) is currently very poorly dated; and at the other end of this pottery tradition’s use, the dating of the Littleour assemblage needs to eb revisited
- What chronological overlap (if any) was there between the use of Grooved Ware and non-Grooved Ware pottery in Orkney?