The questions below apply specifically to the Neolithic period in the Highlands. Some research questions in the Land and Environment section 3.9 may also apply to the Neolithic 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.
5.9.1 Introductory Questions
HARF Qu 5.1: What happened to the indiginous hunter-fisher-forager communities when immigrant farmers first appeared?
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For how long did their lifestyle persist/survive? Did they choose to acculturate into farming communities?Status:
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09/01/2021Date of next review:
09/01/2024Found in the following Frameworks:
The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.2: Do any shell middens in the Highland Region date to the fourth and early third millennia?
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if they do, are they evidence for the persistence of a Mesolithic lifestyle or for the adoption of the practice of shellfish exploitation by farmers, and do they also contain bones of domesticated animals?Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.3: What happened to the farming communities when Beaker-using immigrants from the Continent arrived around 2500 BC, and what were the dynamics of the relationships between these two groups?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.4: Are the apparently ‘blank’ areas on the archaeological map for the Neolithic period in Highland Region blank because people did not live there during the Neolithic, or because the evidence for their presence has not yet been found?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework5.9.2 Environmental Questions
HARF Qu 5.5: What, if any, effect did the variations in storminess have on farming practices and the location of settlements?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.6: How much blanket peat coverage was there during the Neolithic period, and can its expansion be mapped in detail?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework5.9.3 Settlement
HARF Qu 5.7: What was the nature of Neolithic settlement?
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Scattered individual farmsteads? Any nucleated settlements? Any temporary sites (eg shielings)?– and did it vary from area to area within Highland Region, or over time?Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.8: What was the nature of coastal settlement/activity in areas that are now sandhills?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.9: Did people live at the sites, such as Littleferry, that Richard Bradley has suggested operated as ‘coastal havens’ for interaction and exchanges?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework5.9.4 Landscape
HARF Qu 5.11: How much of the landscape was inhabited (on a permanent or temporary basis) during the Neolithic?
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Did people only live in the areas of good agricultural land? Can palaeoenvironmental research shed light on this question?Status:
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09/01/2021Date of next review:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework5.9.5 Buildings
HARF Qu 5.12: Are there any Early Neolithic ‘halls’ in Highland Region?
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Are the two structures that are known from aerial photos at Balmachree candidates, or do they date instead to the first millennium AD?Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.13: What was the shape and construction of houses at different points during the Neolithic?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework5.9.6 Subsistence, Diet and Health
HARF Qu 5.14: What was the full range of foodstuffs in the Neolithic diet?
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Can we find any evidence for the use of leafy vegetables, for example?Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.15: How many domestic animals, and in what proportion (cattle:sheep/goat:pig), would each settlement keep?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.17: When, and to what extent, were marine resources consumed?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.18: What was the ratio of wild to domesticated foodstuffs in the diet
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Did people hunt, and if so, did hunting provide any more than a minor element in the diet? Were deer exploited – and were their movements managed?Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework5.9.7 Material Culture
HARF Qu 5.19: Can we create finer-grained ceramic typochronologies for the Neolithic pottery in Highland Region?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.20: Specifically, what is the date of the Neolithic pottery found in Kenny’s Cairn, Garrywhin, The Ord North and Rubh’ an Dunain?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.21: What was the overall currency of Grooved Ware in Highland Region, and was there a chronological overlap with the use of Impressed Ware and Beaker pottery?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.22: With flaked lithics, what are the patterns of resource exploitation?
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Might there be other examples of movement of raw materials or finished artefacts in addition to pitchstone and the other materials discussed in the text?Status:
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09/01/2021Date of next review:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.23: To what extent, and over what timeframe, was Yorkshire flint imported into Highland Region, and to what extent can patterns of flint exploitation be characterised?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.24: How much specialised production of flaked lithic artefacts was taking place during the Neolithic, and which artefacts are the product of specialist production?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.25: Was Buchan Ridge flint from the Den of Boddam mines imported into Highland Region?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.26: Can an Early Neolithic knapping tradition be clearly identified and differentiated from a Late Mesolithic tradition in Highland Region?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.27: From where was the tradition of Levallois-like knapping adopted?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.28: Were the two axeheads of Shetland felsite genuinely found in Highland Region, or might Fountaine Walker have acquired them from Shetland?
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Might there be any documentation that relates to the discovery of these axeheads or that describes Walker’s collecting habits?Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.29: Where did the All-Over-Polished flint axeheads originate, and when were they made?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.30: Are there more Alpine axeheads lurking in museum collections or private hands?
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More generally, are there more Highland Region axehead finds in addition to the ones listed in Datasheet 5.1?Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.31: What was the overall pattern of resource exploitation for stone axe- and adze-heads?
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What proportion of axeheads are made of non-local materials? Are there correlations between the shape and the material of axeheads?Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.32: Were any maceheads or carved stone balls made in Highland Region?
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If not, from where did they come? Is the range of materials used for maceheads or carved stone balls comparable with that used elsewhere in Scotland? Were Maesmor-type maceheads all made in the same place, or same few places, and can the work of individual stoneworking specialists be recognised in their production?Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.33: How many of the saddle querns found in Highland Region are of Neolithic date?
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An inventory of saddle quern finds is needed.Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.34: What cereals (and/or other plant foods) were ground on saddle querns?
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This can be explored using scientific analysis.Status:
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09/01/2021Date of next review:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework5.9.8 Religion and Ritual
HARF Qu 5.35: Are the proposed ‘non-megalithic long mounds’ actually non-megalithic?
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Do they cover the remains of timber mortuary structures or cremation pyre sites?Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.36: Can we refine our proposed typochronology of chamber tombs and other funerary monuments in Highland Region?
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In particular, when were long horned cairns added to pre-existing passage tombs, and when were heel-shaped cairns constructed?Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.37: When were Greadal Fhinn and Rahoy constructed, and do they contain any human remains or artefactual finds?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.38: What was the cultural affiliation of the people, of Continental ancestry, who were buried in caves and at An Corran rock shelter?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.39: What is the significance of the differences in carbon and nitrogen isotope values for human remains found in caves, in Orkney-Cromarty passage tombs and in Clyde cairns, as noted in Sheridan and Schulting 2020?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.40: Is the Balintore cist a one-off variant of funerary practice, or are there other Neolithic cist graves waiting to be discovered?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.41: During the Early Neolithic, what was the full range of funerary rites afforded to the dead?
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Did everyone reside in a funerary monument, for a certain length of time? Or were most bodies disposed of in a way that has left no archaeological trace?Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.42: Was cremation the only funerary rite used during the Late Neolithic?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework5.9.9 Ritual and Special Places
HARF Qu 5.43: Are there any mortuary enclosures, cursus monuments or bank barrows in Highland Region?
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Is the Culduthel Phase 9 structure a mortuary enclosure, a cursus, or something else? When was it created?Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.44: Are there any major Neolithic gathering sites in Highland Region?
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What enclosures exist in Highland Region?Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.46: Do any stone circles (excluding relics of Clava Cairns, and excluding the Armadale example) date to this period?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.47: When was the rock art created? And how was it used?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework5.9.10 Movement and Transport
HARF Qu 5.48: What were the patterns of lifetime movement among the Neolithic inhabitants of Highland Region?
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Was it only members of an elite that got to travel long distances? Were there patterned movements associated with marriage rules?Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.49: Did patterns of movement change over the course of the Neolithic?
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What was the nature of the contact across the Pentland Firth that led to the sharing of design ideas for funerary monuments and pottery, etc? We need isotopic data to address some of these questionsStatus:
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09/01/2021Date of next review:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.50: Did the experience of travelling to Orkney during the Late Neolithic alter the social organisation of the inhabitants of Highland Region?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkHARF Qu 5.51: Were cattle used for traction during the Neolithic in the Highland Region?
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The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework5.9.11 Conflict
HARF Qu 5.52: Are there further examples of inter-personal conflict waiting to be discovered among the Neolithic human remains from Highland Region?
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This is unlikely, however, as the remains have been fairly thoroughly examined.Status:
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The Scottish Archaeological Research FrameworkAre there research questions 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.