Iron Age pottery of Northern and Western Mainland Scotland and the Small Isles during the Long Iron Age: typology and aspects of ceramic social narrative

Abstract

The extensive collection of Iron Age pottery from antiquarian investigations of Atlantic Roundhouse sites in Caithness, Sutherland and the Small Isles (Inner Hebrides) provided an ideal opportunity to address several gaps in the academic understanding of pottery sequences outwith the Western Isles (Outer Hebrides). Until now no work of this kind for Caithness or Sutherland has been conducted, and the material culture of Skye and the Inner Hebrides has been subsumed largely into the broader sequences of their more westerly neighbours. The aim of the thesis is twofold. Firstly, to establish pottery sequences for three sub-regions of Atlantic Scotland; Northern Mainland, Western Mainland and Skye and Small Isles, using both antiquarian material and pottery from recent excavations. This comprises the first five chapters of the thesis. And secondly, within the following three chapters, utilizing two pieces of experimental research and a series of case studies, the author explores the social narrative of the ceramic assemblage, ultimately to better understand technological and cultural aspects of pot making and use.