Iron Age Pottery of the Western Isles of Scotland, with specific reference to Lochna Beirgh, Riof, Isle of Lewis

Abstract

The excellent stratification found at the Iron Age site of Loch na Beirgh, on the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles, Scotland, provided an opportunity to study the changing sequence of pottery throughout a considerable portion of the Hebridean Iron Age. This study analyses in detail the pottery assemblage from this islet settlement that began life as a Complex Atlantic Roundhouse and remained the focus of occupation for about a thousand years. The eleven excavated phases cover the early to late first millennium AD.

The principal aim of the thesis is to establish a sequence of ceramic change at Loch na Beirgh and provide a theoretical context for this sequence. The pottery assemblages from the excavated phases are characterised, and a sequence for the Beirgh assemblage is described. The rigorous statistical methodology used allows for a unique perspective through which to consider specific theoretical and archaeological questions from the Hebridean Iron Age. Change and continuity in the manufacturing processes, form, decoration and function of the assemblage over time are examined within the context of corresponding settlement and social change. Some explanations are provided for the changes seen throughout this period in meaning, function and significance of the pottery as an everyday tool.

This site-specific sequence is then placed into a wider context within the Hebridean Iron Age. Comparisons are first drawn from excavated contemporary sites known from within the vicinity of Loch na Beirgh on west Lewis, to provide a detailed pottery sequence of this micro-region. The sequence is then expanded to include other excavated assemblages from across the Outer Hebrides. The study utilises the now well known Iron Age settlement sequence in the Western Isles as a basis for determining ceramic change throughout this period and establishes an outline sequence for the pottery of the Western Isles.