The research recommendations below apply to the Neolithic period in the Highland Region. Some research questions 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 new digital platform facility.
HARF Agenda 5.1: Further research on the fate of human remains discovered long ago may reveal clues as to where they are now.
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Might any of the ‘lost’ human remains from old excavations ever turn up?
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01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.2: Any fieldwork that has not yet been published fully needs to be brought to that state, with any outstanding specialist work (including radiocarbon dating) carried out.
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There are several very important sites (such as the Lower Slackbuie ASDA site) whose publication status remains provisional, in the realms of ‘grey literature’. The Lower Slackbuie ASDA site is better than some insofar as the specialist reports have been completed and are available (along with an interim report, effectively the Data Structure Report) through the Highland HER, and yet there remains no full presentation of the radiocarbon dates obtained during post-excavation work, and apparently no funds are forthcoming to bring this site to full final publication. Moreover, here as at Culduthel nearby, several fieldwork interventions have been undertaken by different archaeologists at different times, and there is a need to integrate and publish the results of all of these as a single publication. In the case of several excavations in Highland Region, no specialist post-excavation work has been undertaken. Among the many frustrations of this state of affairs is that claims made by excavators for the presence of specific kinds of Neolithic pottery are suspect; examples of where mis-identifications have been made are given in Section 5.4.3.1. In the case of the important Canna Neolithic settlement mounds (Gannon 2016), where some initial specialist work has been undertaken (Sheridan 2015), full publication of all these sites by the National Trust for Scotland is highly recommended.Status:
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01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.3: Fully illustrated and documented online corpora of the Neolithic material culture would facilitate future research.
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The work of collating, checking and disseminating information that has already undertaken by ARCH and by the principal author of this chapter needs to be continued and expanded. Fully illustrated and documented online corpora of the Neolithic material culture – and especially of the pottery, the axeheads, the arrowheads, the carved stone balls and the maceheads, which are dispersed across several museums and other collections – would immeasurably facilitate future research and would assist excavators and specialists to appreciate what has already been found, and how new finds might compare with this. Fully illustrated publications on the range of stone used for flaked lithics would help in the recognition of raw materials and of movement of resources. As regards arrowheads, the entries on the existing Datasheet (Datasheet 5.2) need to be checked by studying the actual arrowheads, and reliable identifications as to arrowhead type and raw material need to be made. The map (Map 5.2) will need to differentiate the different arrowhead types so as to highlight chronological trends during the Neolithic.Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.4: Collation of information on lithic scatters should be undertaken.
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The collation work should include collating information on lithic scatters and other artefact spreads, mapping these, and comparing the maps with those for known settlement activity. Targeted excavation of some lithic scatters is also recommended, to check whether any structural evidence may be preserved in the vicinity.Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.5: A definitive and fully-documented listing of radiocarbon dates is crucial for ensuring that the many pieces in the complex jigsaw of evidence for the Highland Region can be put in their correct places.
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Dataset 2.1 contains all published examples found during the construction of HighARF, but misses many, in part because there is no central register of radiocarbon dates and no systematic reporting of dates from developer-funded excavations, and in part because many dates remain buried in grey literature, or indeed were produced after the initial DSRs were completed and have never been published. These data, as in other periods, are essential to any study of the Highland Region. Upgrading of Dataset 2.1 should include provision of a narrative regarding the context of each dated sample. Furthermore, the establishment of a system of annual reporting of all dates obtained through developer-funded excavation projects and research projects, analogous to the National Museums’ Scotland annual radiocarbon date round-up in Discovery and Excavation in Scotland, is strongly recommended.
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01/09/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.6: Radiocarbon dating of encrusted organic residues and of absorbed lipids in pottery would help to clarify ceramic typochronology.
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.7: Targeted excavation of funerary monuments, especially with a view to obtaining radiocarbon dating samples relating to their construction, would help to refine the chronology and developmental trajectories of these monuments.
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Prime examples are Greadal Fhinn, Rahoy and Cairn of Get (GarrywhinStatus:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.8: More, and a broader range of isotopic analysis, needs to be undertaken for human and (where possible) animal remains in order to clarify patterns of mobility
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.9: Surviving animal remains found in chamber tombs need to be studied and radiocarbon dated to assess when, in the lives of the monuments, they entered them.
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In particular, the bones from Cairn of Get (both faunal and human) need to be dated.Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.10: More fieldwork of the type undertaken by Scotland’s First Settlers and more recently Stephanie Piper that led to the discovery of the Uamh Mhór site needs to be undertaken in the ‘blank’ areas of the map, to prospect for sites.
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This should ideally be combined with fine-grained palaeoenvironmental surveys.Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.11: Investigation of stone circles and standing stones is necessary to determine whether any had been erected during the Neolithic period.
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.12: More systematic surveys of lithic raw material availability, of the kind undertaken by Torben Ballin for the Tarradale project, needs to be undertaken in order to characterise local material and thereby to highlight non-local artefacts.
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.13: Shell middens need to be mapped systematically and explored, with a view to dating them and examining whether terrestrial domesticated animal remains are present.
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.14: The excellent work already carried out by Scotland’s Rock Art Project needs to be continued after the project ends in late 2021, so that verification of claimed examples of rock art can continue, and so that targeted excavation can be used to seek dating information.
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.15: Systematic petrological examination of all the stone axeheads and maceheads found in Highland Region needs to be undertaken to assess patterns of resource use, and to standardise and update the terms used for the various stone types
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Any carved stone balls that have not yet been petrologically examined need to be sourced.Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.16: A targeted study of all the flint axeheads in Highland Region, to clarify the range of possible sources, would highlight the particularly interesting pattern of resource use for this type of axehead.
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.17: A special study of the Neolithic of Inverness and its environs should be undertaken, to synthesise all the many bits of information that now exist. This would facilitate comparison of newly-discovered material with already-published material.
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.18: Intriguing finds from poorly-documented fieldwork, such as those from the Inverness-Dingwall gas pipeline work – especially the possible Neolithic deposit of cremated human remains with a leaf-shaped arrowhead and ‘coarse sherds’, MHG8342 – need to be investigated further and, where possible, radiocarbon-dated, to release the information that they hold.
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.19: Predictive modelling of Neolithic settlement sites needs to be undertaken, and areas of colluvium where settlement remains may be found need to be targeted for fieldwork. The archaeological record is dominated by funerary monuments, and the associated settlement sites need to be located. Pollen investigations may aid identification of settlement sites.
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.20: Research into the history of collections and collectors may help to track down information about old finds, and to discover the current location of ‘lost’ material.
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Agenda 5.21: Our models for envisaging and characterising Neolithic social organisation, settlement and subsistence strategies need to be less simplistic than they currently are.
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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.