Early Neolithic Settlement
1. At Doon Hill, East Lothian, there are several outstanding questions about the structural evidence relating to the large house structures, palisade and pits that may be resolvable through new, small-scale excavation. Can such work be undertaken in the current financial climate, particularly as it applies to Historic Environment Scotland (in whose care the site remains)?
2. Is the so-called ‘hall’ at Whitmuirhaugh, Sprouston, Scottish Borders of Early Neolithic date, as is suspected from its ground plan? This requires excavation.
3. Are any of the other potential candidate Early Neolithic ‘halls’ in south-east Scotland, as known from aerial photography (for example at Sled Hill, East Lothian), of Early Neolithic date? Ground-truthing through excavation is required.
4. Is it possible to test the ‘communal initial living followed by “budding-off” into individual extended-family farmsteads’ model, by finding these individual farmsteads? Can the aerial photography record, or distribution patterns of Early Neolithic artefact types, help to inform on this?
5. Can more be done to ascertain the overall distribution pattern of Early Neolithic settlement, and to compare it with those of the Middle and Late Neolithic? In particular, to what extent were upland areas occupied? Increasing the geographical coverage of palaeoenvironmental work might help.
6. Is it possible to discover more about the known and suspected Early Neolithic settlement sites by excavating in adjacent areas? For example, can it be ascertained that the Duns Law Farm site was indeed a settlement that contained a pit with human remains? And can the nature of the settlement at The Hirsel be understood better by excavating in the areas where geophysical prospecting has indicated high potential for Early Neolithic activity?
Middle Neolithic Settlement
7. What was the nature and distribution of Middle Neolithic settlement? How typical is the Overhailes settlement evidence, and does it really indicate a less sedentary lifestyle than that of the Early Neolithic? Was there a change in the agricultural lifestyle around 3500 BC, necessitating a change from year-round to more temporary occupation, as some have claimed?
8. Does the presence of Middle and Late Neolithic pottery at coastal locations in East Lothian, seemingly in association with ‘midden’ material including seashells, mean that farmers, by this date, had given up their ancestors’ (cultural) aversion to exploiting seafood? And can a radiocarbon dating programme be undertaken on the material from these coastal sites (although avoiding the animal bones from ‘Tusculum’, North Berwick, which were soaked in animal glue to preserve them), in order to check which material from these ‘middens’ is pre-Beaker in date?
Late Neolithic
9. What was the nature and distribution of settlement during the Late Neolithic in SE Scotland, and how did it relate to subsistence strategies?
General
10. Is there scope for interrogating lithic scatters and lithic stray finds to determine whether: a) they can be allocated to a particular part of the Neolithic and b) they reflect patterns of settlement?
11. What is the most effective strategy for finding evidence for Neolithic settlement? Can research-fieldwork programmes be created to focus on areas of high potential (for example areas covered by colluvial or alluvial deposits)? And how can we best interpret the evidence from all the known sites where the only features found are pits?
12. How representative is the evidence from the settlements that we do know of the general nature, organisation and distribution of settlement in south-east Scotland as a whole? And is there scope for improving our radiocarbon-dating record using the evidence already available to us?
13. Can we assess the spatial relationship between Neolithic monuments and Neolithic settlements in SE Scotland? If not, what can we do to make this possible?
14. What would it take to enable us to see patterns and changes in the distribution and nature of settlements over the course of the Neolithic in south-east Scotland?