The recommendations below apply specifically to the Iron Age period in the Highlands. Some research recommendations in the Land and Environment section 3.10 may also apply to this period.
Many research questions from the original National ScARF and other regional research frameworks are also relevant and applicable in the Highlands. These will soon be all be searchable and available all together through our our new digital platform facility.
General
HARF Agenda 7.1: More dates, targeting objects and contexts, are needed for both old and new sites.
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Chronology is key to all narratives. All new work should have budgets which allow for good dating and post-excavation analysis.Status:
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkEnvironmental
HARF Agenda 7.2: Local and regional pictures need to be assembled from published sites showing woodland clearance, availability of oak and pine, peat formation etc.
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01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.3: Use multi-proxy approaches to target areas which emerge as under-represented in the record, for example Badenoch and Strathspey and much of Lochaber.
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.4: Assemble data on sea level change for different areas of the Highlands, in particular for the Late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age.
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkSettlement
HARF Agenda 7.10: Further work is needed on small hillforts/duns in southern Skye and cARS/brochs in the north of the island, looking also at sources of building materials.
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.11: Auldearn has potential for another high status site like Culduthel. Fieldwalking and large scale excavation would be useful, and careful monitoring of any development in the area is essential.
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.12: Further investigation of west coast caves is desirable, to try and determine multi-period occupation and to compare with information emerging from the Rosemarkie Caves project.
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The Scotlands First Settlers project provides information to allow selection of suitable sites.Status:
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.5: Landscape studies are needed, combined with good environmental dating, to show changes in time.
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These should include investigation where there are clusters of sites, for example at Glenelg, Lochalsh or Sinclair Bay, Caithness, with a focus on different types of sites and chronology. Further work on Strath Suardal sites, identified in surveys by Martin Wildgoose (2016) could form the focus of more detailed investigation. The Wag of Forse in Caithness has roundhouses, overlain by a Complex Atlantic roundhouse, then wags, a rectangular longhouse and a wall characterised as turf on stone, presenting opportunities for different use on the same site, which could then be placed in its landscape.Status:
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.6: A second, unexcavated crannog in Loch of the Clans, Inverness-shire would allow some comparison with the first. This investigation should also focus on other Iron Age settlement in the localities. Are they contemporary?
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.7: Further investigation is needed of substantial Atlantic roundhouse and outlying structures to compare to work at Nybster, to determine if in general the outlying buildings are contemporary with the roundhouse.
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Although we will always glean new information from brochs, we need to move away from the excavation of untouched brochs and either target roundhouses previously excavated and the walls, or non-broch structures such as cellular external buildings.Status:
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.8: Further work with good dating is needed for palisaded enclosures.
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Possible contenders would include Aldourie, Inverness-shire which appears to enclose a roundhouse (MHG17860), Penick, Nairnshire (MHG7054) and Balblair, Nairnshire (MHG7285) which is larger and may have enclosed a settlement rather than a simple roundhouse.Status:
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.9: More focus is needed on Simple Atlantic roundhouses, which have not received as much attention as Complex Atlantic roundhouses.
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We need to understand how these houses related to more substantial structures, and their places in the landscape.Status:
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkDaily Life and Diagnostic Artefacts
HARF Agenda 7.13: Revisit old excavation assemblages. They hold enormous potential for information about daily life, and comparisons between areas, which is generally ignored.
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For example, Cruickshanks (2017) has shown the potential of focussing on whetstones to gain an insight into iron use where iron does not survive.Status:
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.14: An overall study and synthesis of Iron Age pottery needs to be widely available.
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The publication of Orlene McIlfatrick’s thesis would form a basis, and collections in museums should be integrated into this. Is there a difference in ceramic use between western and eastern Highlands?Status:
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01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.15: Dating of glass beads needs refining.
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Can we trace movements of objects made at Culbin Sands and Culduthel?Status:
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.16: With finds from recent excavations, the time is ripe to pull together information on Iron Age tools and their uses.
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01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.17: Evidence of cultivation, animal husbandry, hunting and fishing should be brought together, and correlated with environmental and dating evidence.
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Can this show intensification of agriculture in certain areas/times? Sites with good bone preservation should be identified and analysed.Status:
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.18: Isotope analysis of human remains is desirable to show direct evidence of diet and mobility.
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If, as seems possible from excavated caves and other sites, marine protein was a factor, was this widespread or only local sites?Status:
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.28: More work on the context of Roman finds in the different areas of the Highlands is needed, especially comparing with the emerging evidence from neighbouring Moray.
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkReligion and Ritual
HARF Agenda 7.20: Dating of human remains (see Datasheet 2.2) would allow more data to address issues of regionality and chronology.
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.21: The context of the Ballachulish figure would repay further attention, based on assessment of preservation (Clarke 1998). This has the potential for being another important Highland ritual site.
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.22: Further dating of Highland souterrain sites is needed, with more data to shed light on their periods of use and functions.
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkCraft and Industry
HARF Agenda 7.23: Evidence of craft activity should be pulled together, especially evidence for raw materials sources, and then the evidence assessed to address questions of regionality, specialists or more general practitioners, differences in techniques and decoration, uses both domestic and ritual, social control etc.
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01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.24: Further analysis of workshop activity in caves sites is needed, to compare with settlement sites.
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Are the caves near other evidence of Iron Age settlement?Status:
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkTransport and Movement
HARF Agenda 7.25: More detailed analysis of evidence for connections between different areas is needed. For example, are different parts of the Highlands primarily interacting with different areas?
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01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.26: More isotope analysis is needed to explore movements of people.
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 7.27: Further work on sources for steatite/talc and cannel coal, lignite and albertite is needed, and then to relate this to finished products.
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This in turn will provide valuable evidence on movement of raw materials and finished goods and production techniques, and will help determine if the objects were locally manufactured or imports. An easy first step is to compare with Shetland steatite.Status:
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkConflict
HARF Agenda 7.29: The issue of whether the Roman army made it to the Highlands has a tenacious following. Revisiting postulated sites at Easter Gallcantry and Tarradale, with appropriate large scale investigation might provide further information.
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01/09/2021Date of next review:
01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkAre there research recommendations that you think are missing?
Why not add your comment below which will be flagged to ScARF (or get in touch with ScARF directly) and new questions will be considered for addition at the next revision.