- What was the relationship between the indigenous population and the immigrant community of Beaker users?
- How large were the numbers of Continental Beaker users who came to live in south-east Scotland, and over what period did they arrive? From where on the Continent did they arrive, in addition to north Germany?
- Answering this will require further aDNA analysis of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age human remains from south-east Scotland.
- For how long did Late Neolithic Grooved Ware and other Late Neolithic pottery continue to be used after Beaker pottery appeared?
- What was the date of the East Lothian coastal midden sites that are associated with Beaker pottery?
- Addressing this question will require the radiocarbon dating of animal bones (and possibly also fish bones and shells) from these sites.
- What was the nature of settlement and subsistence strategies during the Chalcolithic period?
- The coastal midden sites of putative Chalcolithic date cannot be taken to be typical of settlement and subsistence more generally in south-east Scotland.
- What was the currency of Unenclosed Platform Settlements in this part of Scotland?
- Answering this will require the radiocarbon dating of a mass of material excavated by the Biggar Archaeology Group and Peebles Archaeological Society over the last 30 years.
- How many of the numerous burnt mounds in south-east Scotland date to the Chalcolithic or Bronze Age periods?
- Answering this will require the radiocarbon dating of a mass of material excavated by the Biggar Archaeology Group and Peebles Archaeological Society over the last 30 years.
- Is the high density of burnt mounts a genuine phenomenon?
- The south-east Scottish distribution of burnt mounds as currently known is largely an artefact of highly uneven field survey activity, with the work of the Biggar Archaeology Group and Peebles Archaeology Society having identified hundreds of examples (Ward 2013a), and Stratford Halliday’s review of the LiDAR evidence having thrown up a few additional examples across the former county of Selkirkshire and to the north of Galashiels. A few others have also been identified in the Lammermuir Hills but the work on the A1 (Lelong and MacGregor 2007) did not produce any examples along that corridor. There does seem to be a bias towards major rivers and upland areas: is this a genuine phenomenon? Addressing this will require further, targeted survey.
- With the continuing changes in the allocation of resources to archaeology by Historic Environment Scotland, how can the filling of the gaps in our knowledge base – such as in the distribution of UPS and burnt mound sites – be achieved through targeted survey?
- Who will fund that survey? And who will fund the necessary work to protect and/or document-by-record the sites in south-east Scotland that are threatened by afforestation and reservoir-erosion?
- Were any single standing stones or stone circles erected between around 2500 BC and 800 BC in south-east Scotland?
- What is the overall nature of settlement patterns, subsistence strategies and social organisation in this part of Scotland between around 2500 BC and 800 BC?
- Can an expansion of settlement into the highland areas be dated?
- Did the climatic downturn during the late 3rd millennium have a major impact on the distribution and location of settlements?
- A major threat to the survival of the archaeological record for this period comes from afforestation and from continuing erosion of sites that have been submerged under reservoirs.
- The work of the Biggar Archaeology Group and the Peebles Archaeology Society has highlighted this issue, and has done much to gain as much information as possible before sites are completely destroyed. What can be done to undertake the necessary professional post-excavation, dating and publication of this material?
- During the Middle Bronze Age, what kind/s of settlement other than UPS were used?
- Is it, as Tam Ward has suggested (2013a, 58), that non-platform-built roundhouses such as the one excavated by Headland Archaeology near Whelphill, in the Midlock Water area of Clydesdale were used(Masser 2009)?
- At what point during the Bronze Age did enclosures/enclosed settlements start to be used in south-east Scotland?
- Here, the post-excavation radiocarbon dating work on the finds from Edmonstone Policies, City of Edinburgh will be essential (Muir 2024)
- During the Late Bronze Age, did the elite and their entourage live in prominent locations, while lower-ranking members of society live downslope?
- Survey and fieldwork in East Lothian would be a good area in which to address this question.
- Were horses used to draw vehicles during the Late Bronze Age? A reconsideration of the ‘vehicle fitting’ from the Horsehope hoard is required.
