The British Chalcolithic period is now widely recognised as beginning during the 25th century BC. It is marked by the appearance of the first metal artefacts, produced from copper and gold and the introduction of new material culture and other practices from the European Continent (Allen et al 2012; Parker Pearson et al 2019). True bronze metallurgy – bronze objects produced from alloying copper and tin and later, lead – emerged around 2200/2150 BC, and its appearance denotes the start of the Bronze Age. It is more problematic to define the subsequent transition to the Iron Age across Scotland but it is generally understood to occur around 800 BC (cf. Needham 2012). For the purposes of this Framework, the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age are defined as 2450–800 BC.
The Chalcolithic and Bronze Age period in Perth and Kinross exhibits many of the major practices, monument types and artefact forms that define the significant technological and societal changes brought about in the 3rd millennium BC with the advent of metallurgy and its subsequent development through the 2nd and 1st millennia BC. Continental burial practices and the Beaker pottery tradition of the Chalcolithic have been found in Perth and Kinross. There is evidence of connections with the Lower Rhine or neighbouring areas, for example, from the ring-ditched grave and associated Beaker excavated at Newmill near Bankfoot (MPK2317; Sheridan 2008a; see also Fokkens 2012).
Artefact recovery has generally been poor in upland areas, especially in terms of chance finds, in contrast to far greater numbers recovered in the lowland areas. This is largely due to patterns of land use (Stevenson 1975). While contextual information on historical discoveries is often lacking, such information is increasingly forthcoming in the case of modern finds. This is the result both of the excavation of sites to modern standards and also of the majority of metal detectorists and other finders now working closely with the Treasure Trove Unit to record and report discoveries – as is clear from entries in Discovery and Excavation Scotland.
In contrast to earlier periods, evidence for settlement during the Bronze Age – from the later stages of the Early Bronze Age onwards – is both extensive and exceptional (Strachan 2011, 4). This is especially the case across upland areas where non-intrusive survey work has revealed a diverse range of roundhouse forms including single and double-skinned types plus regionally distinctive tangential pairs (see RCAHMS 1990). Sites and monuments associated with ceremonies and burials are abundant; they include Scotland’s second largest Early Bronze Age cemetery which features deposits of cremated remains at Kilmagadwood near Loch Leven (MPK18535; MPK3013; Sheridan et al 2018a). Cairns of various forms are present; there is a notable concentration of Bronze Age ‘Four-Poster’ stone ‘circles’, more accurately described as ‘Four-Poster settings’, which are discussed elsewhere in this chapter. Excavation of a Four-Poster setting at Na Clachan Aoraidh near Blair Atholl revealed cremated human remains and associated charcoal dating to the Late Bronze Age (MPK1245; Ellis and Ritchie 2018). It adds considerably our understanding of Late Bronze Age funerary rites. The reuse of earlier monuments and ceremonial complexes as places of Bronze Age burial, such as at Forteviot Henge 1 (MPK1888), offers valuable insights into the changing uses of monuments as well as prehistoric concepts of identity, ritual, sense of the past (including memory) and cosmology. The general sparsity of Late Bronze Age burial evidence in Scotland limits the extent to which we can understand many aspects of the human dimension. The region’s rich artefact assemblage from the Late Bronze Age, which includes bronze, gold and amber artefacts, provides evidence of long-distance connections. It is of considerable importance for understanding the lives and deaths of the inhabitants of Perth and Kinross in this period. External contacts are also apparent for other periods of the Bronze Age and the Chalcolithic.
The watercourses of the region were clearly of great importance throughout the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age, given the lowland patterns of deposition of single finds and metalwork hoards which are concentrated around rivers, especially the Tay. Evidence of rivers’ role as travel corridors has also been revealed through studying exceptional artefacts and their contexts such as the Carpow logboat from the Tay estuary near Abernethy (MPK12214; Strachan 2010a; 2010b). Travel by boat was not, of course, the only means of transport; in Blairdrummond Moss, in the former county of Perthshire (now Stirling), three wooden disc-wheels were found, probably for a cart, of which only one survives. The survivor, made of ash, has proved to be the earliest evidence for wheeled transport in Britain and Ireland, since it has been radiocarbon dated to 1206–809 cal BC (OxA-3538, 2810±85 BP: Sheridan and Saville 1993; see also Piggott 1957 and 1983 on the discovery and significance of the wheels). Several sub-peat wooden trackways are also known from the historical county of Perthshire, including a corduroy roadway 12 feet (about 3.6m) wide in Blairdrummond Moss. However, none have been dated, and so it is currently impossible to tell whether the Late Bronze Age Blairdrummond vehicle had been driven along any of them.
In a break from the structure of the previous chapters, the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Regional Overview is divided into chronological spans with each summarising and assessing the current state of knowledge, highlighting regionally distinctive features where they exist. The breakdown is as follows:
- Chalcolithic (around 2450–2200/2150 BC)
- Early Bronze Age (2200/2150–1600/1500 BC)
- Middle Bronze Age (1600/1500–1150 BC)
- Late Bronze Age (1150–800 BC)
These divisions are presented according to the latest chronological understandings in relation to funerary and artefactual traditions. However, they do not capture the complex nuances of different simultaneous developments – for instance, they do not necessarily align with changes in the settlement record.
Contextualisation is provided with reference to other areas of Scotland where appropriate, reflecting the way in which past activity did not occur in isolation, nor was it restricted by modern administrative boundaries. The overview concludes with a summary review of the palaeoenvironmental evidence for the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age, and a brief history of archaeological research undertaken in the region.