A contribution to the Later Prehistoric and Early Medieval (400 BC - AD 650) settlement record of Galloway

Abstract

This critical review concerns a sequence of two archaeological excavations and a regional synthesis undertaken between 2003 and 2012 and subsequently published between 2007 and 2016. The various projects were focussed upon Galloway and were primarily concerned with settlement patterns between 400 BC and AD 650. The published work proposed for consideration comprises a monograph and three articles (Appendices B-E). Initial examination of the background to previous research into the later prehistoric and early medieval settlement record of Galloway, provided in Chapters 2 and 3, outlines the basis for the author’s research. The archaeological evidence recovered from the writer’s excavation of Carghidown Promontory Fort and Trusty’s Hill Fort is discussed in Chapters 4 and 5 respectively, revealing aspects of the later prehistoric and early medieval settlement pattern in Galloway within a local, regional and national context. This is followed, in Chapter 6, by an exploration of the classification, morphology and chronology of the later prehistoric and early medieval settlement record in Galloway, building on the results of the author’s previous work and examining the ephemeral basis for many site classifications and the distinctions made between sites in Galloway and other regions of southern Scotland. The concluding chapter (7) examines through regional, national, international and chronological perspectives how the archaeology of later prehistoric and early medieval Galloway is embedded within core underlying patterns of settlement and culture in Scotland between 400 BC and AD 650. This final chapter also draws out contrasts during this period between settlement and culture in Scotland and that of neighbouring countries.