- Assess and better understand the transitionary period between the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age periods in terms of environmental, socio-economical and political changes.
- Identify and understand the chronology, development and relationship of timber roundhouses and crannogs to the stone built fort, dun and broch structures.
- Collect a more comprehensive series of absolute dates for potential Iron Age features and their associated artefacts.
- Investigate Iron Age structures relative to their surrounding landscapes and crucially, waterscapes.
- Understand the environmental context of Argyll’s Iron Age and identify environmental changes over the period (see Section 4.8) .
- Reassess artefact assemblages from earlier excavations.
- Identify any regional or sub-regional cultural patterns within Argyll and between Argyll and other regions.
- Understand the processes that led to the continuity of use and/or reoccupation of certain sites into the Early Medieval period and the discontinuation of others.
- Discover the remains of, and interpret, identifiable practices to better understand death in Iron Age Argyll.
Read the related case study Case Study 8: Balure Dun Excavation