Open Access E-Books

From 2001 to 2004, a programme of archaeological work was conducted during upgrading of the A1 road to dual carriageway between Haddington and Dunbar in East Lothian. The work involved trial trenching, monitoring of topsoil stripping and excavation of 11 archaeological sites, carried out by Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division...

The stalled cairn of Holm of Papa Westray North (OR K 21) in the far north of Orkney was excavated in 1854 and 1982–3. It was preceded by a small cell in a round cairn, which was amalgamated within the rectangular cairn of the stalled chamber. The cell was filled and walled off within the life of the stalled chamber, and the latter, with...

This volume presents the result of three excavations and two field walking surveys in Aberdeenshire. They were intended to shed new light on the character, chronology and structural development of the distinctive recumbent stone circles which are such a feature of north-east Scotland. Although the monuments share certain elements with...

This volume presents the results of fieldwork on the East Lothian coastal plain in south-east Scotland investigating the nature later prehistoric settlement around the hillfort of Traprain Law. Following geomagnetic surveys at thirty sites, six enclosures were excavated, three extensively. All six had complex occupation histories, involving...

The Antonine Wall has been visible as an upstanding earthwork across the central belt of Scotland since its construction by the Roman legions over 1,850 years ago, in the reign of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius. This book takes up its story from the time of its abandonment in the reign of Marcus Aurelius and charts developments in our...

This volume is the report of the archaeological excavations that took place on the island of Rhum between 1984 and 1986. The text contains details of the stratigraphical remains on site, and in particular the large body of Mesolithic material recovered. It describes the methodology, detailed analyses of the artefactual assemblages as well as...

Wheelhouses were Iron Age buildings of great sophistication. Although found only in northern Scotland, they belong to a much wider “roundhouse tradition” that, before the arrival of the Romans, covered the whole of Britain. When tidal erosion on Cnip beach in west Lewis uncovered a spectacularly well-preserved wheelhouse complex, it...

The Sculptor’s Cave is one of the most enigmatic prehistoric sites in Britain. Excavated in the 1920s and 1970s, new analysis of the archive has revealed a complex history of funerary and ritual activity from the Late Bronze Age to the Roman Iron Age. Using innovative methods and new techniques, this volume re-examines the results of...

Embroidered samplers show the one aspect of girls’ education that leaves the most lasting and tangible memorial of that part of their lives. This book considers samplers made in Scotland; it aims to situate them within the social context of the period and to examine their role in the education of girls. The time span covers the first...

The Iron Age settlement at Culduthel (NGR: NH 664 414) is one of the most significant later prehistoric sites identified in mainland Scotland. Archaeological excavation in 2005 revealed a craftworking centre which had specialised in the production of iron, bronze and glass objects between the late 1st Millennium BC and early 1st Millennium...

The Fortification of the Firth of Forth describes the story of the great Forth Fortress from 1880 to 1977, when the final traditional defensive capabilities were abandoned. The authors combine archival sources with new fieldwork and oral histories to not only describe what was built, but when and why.

This meticulously...

Around AD 800, a superbly carved cross-slab was erected at Hilton of Cadboll in north-east Scotland. The major part of the stone now stands in the National Museum of Scotland, and the story of what happened to it in the intervening centuries is told here. Excavations at Hilton of Cadboll in 1998 and 2001 revealed not only fragments of the...

The demolition of Victorian villas in the 1970s led to an excavation of a Roman fort at Bearsden, near Glasgow, on the Antonine Wall, and the discovery of a Roman bath-house and latrine.

The bath-house is the tip of an archaeological iceberg. Over ten seasons a substantial...

Portmahomack on the Tarbat peninsula overlooking the Dornoch Firth is a fishing village with a 1,500-year-old history. In the sixth and seventh century it was a high-ranking centre with monumental cist burials and links to the equestrian class in England. In the eighth century it was a monastery, creating manuscripts and making church vessels...

For two hundred years the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland has remained a major guardian of the heritage of the nation in its museum and through the long series of publications by its members that record many of the major discoveries about the early history of Scotland. In 1980 the Society celebrated the bicentenary of its foundation by...