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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 September 2014
The Old Red Sandstone plane of Caithness, with the geologically associated Orkneys, forms a homogeneous region comparatively isolated from the rest of Scotland by its geographical position and structure and by climatic conditions. Neither the physical geography nor the geology of the region need description here, except to note the absence of metals or similar mineral resources and the influence a stone that breaks easily and naturally along its bedding planes into flat slabs must exercise upon the local architecture. A word must, however, be said about the climate, which has not remained constant in prehistoric times.
(1) The best summary is Gams, and Nordhagen, , Postglaziale Klimaänderungen in Mitteleuropa, Munich, 1923Google Scholar; cf. Brooks, , Evolution of Climate, 1925.Google Scholar
(2) Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., xli, Xo. 28; xlv (13); xlvi (2); xlvii (26) (Lewis). Journal of Ecology, xvii, 1 (Woodhead).
(3) Latest statement in Antiquity, i, p. 412; cf. Q.J. Meteorol. Soc., xlvii (1921), p. 176, where (fig. 6) the sub-Boreal dryness is represented as governed by a northward extension of the Azores anticyclone.
(4) For instance, the pressure maps for September 1929 show considerable rain in Norway, an area which should participate fully in the benefits of the sub-Boreal phase.
(5) Brøgger, , Ancient Emigrants, Oxford, 1929.Google Scholar
(6) The best illustrated account of all these monuments remains, Montelius, , Der Orient und Europa, i. (Stockholm, 1899).Google Scholar
(7) de Navarro, in G.J., December 1925, p. 486.Google Scholar
(8) From Orkney I know only one very primitive flat celt (Edinburgh), and one triangular knife-dagger (Glasgow, Hunterian), assignable to the Early Bronze Age, a tanged blade (P.S.A.S., xlii, p. 75), and an earless palstave from the Middle Bronze Age; besides the hoard from Quoykea (P.S.A.S., lvi, p. 357), we have another knife and a socketed celt of Late Bronze Age type. Perhaps the gold and amber ornaments figured in Anderson, ii, p. 68, belong to the later epoch.
(8A) List of hoards by Callander, , in P.S.A.S., lvii, p. 125.Google Scholar
(9) P.S.A.S., lxiii, p. 146 (Lower Dounreay).
(10) Garson, , J. Anthro. Inst., xiii (1883), p. 82.Google Scholar
(11) Anderson, , Scotland in Pagan Times, ii, fig. 280.Google Scholar
(12) P.S.A.S., vii, pp. 201 and 426.
(13) P.S.A.S., lxiii, p. 225; types indicated by letter refer to those there illustrated.
(14) Past in the Present, p. 66.
(15) P.S.A.S., xxxviii, p. 174.
(16) Ibid., p. 175.
(17) P.S.A.S., vii, p. 213.
(18) Mitchell, , Past in the Present, p. 61.Google Scholar
(19) Garson, J. Anthro. Inst., loc. cit., Bryce, , P.S.A.S., lxiii, p. 280.Google Scholar
(20) For chambered cairns see Anderson, op. cit.; Reports of R.C. on Ancient Monuments, Caithness and Sutherland, and for Orkney, , P.S.A.S., xxxvi, p. 733Google Scholar (Kewing Hill), and xxxvii, p. 76 (Taversoë Tuick, Rousay).
(21) Kenny's cairn, Bruan, Caithness, and Kyleoag (83), Sutherland.
(21A) Archœologia, xxxiv, p. 99; lviii, p. 464; lxi, p. 4.
(21B) Such are : leaf-shaped arrow-heads (Unstan), perforated stone mace-heads (Taversoë Tuick, cf. Torlin, Arran, and Ormiegill, Caithness). The pottery from Unstan and Taversoë Tuick agrees generally in form with that from chambered cairns in Caithness, Arran, Bute, and Argyll. The peculiar stab-and-drag technique of the Orkney ware can be matched at Kenny's cairn, Caithness (Callander, , P.S.A.S., lxiii, p. 94).Google Scholar
(22) Fox shows in Arch. Camb., 1926, p. 29, that if Britain be divided by an imaginary line from Teesmouth to Torquay, the highland region to the north and west tends to be an area where intrusive cultures were absorbed while to the south they were imposed.
(23) Trans. Devonshire Assoc., xxvi. p. 109; xxx, p. 99.
(24) In a very valuable paper read before section H of the British Association in 1928.
(25) Abercromby, , Bronze Age Pottery, iiGoogle Scholar; Fox, in Ant. J., vii, p. 120.Google Scholar
(26) Wilts Arch. Mag., xliii, p. 318.
(27) Anderson, ii, figs. 19, 20.
(28) Pequart, and Le Rouzic, , Corpus des signes gravés, pi. 133.Google Scholar
(29) See table of brochs and relics at end.
(30) Anderson, , op. cit., i, p. 226.Google Scholar
(31) e.g. Yarrows and Kintradwell.
(32) Yarrows and Jarlshof.
(33) Dunrobbin and Burrian.
(34) Bulleid and Gray, The Glastonbury Lake Village.
(35) For these see also Callander, , P.S.A.S., 1, p. 145.Google Scholar
(36) Such are reported only from Orkney, but may be included here on account of the early associations of identical forms at Glastonbury.
(37) Munro, Ancient Scottish Lake Dwellings.
(38) Particularly Dunagoil, Trans. Buteshire Arch. Soc., viii and ix, and Dun Fheurain near Oban, P.S.A.S., xxix, p. 278.
(39) P.S.A.S., xix, p. 25, and xxiv, p. 451.
(40) For these see Anderson, i, p. 282, and R.C. Anc. Mons., Hebrides.
(41) Munro, , P.S.A.S., xli, p. 294Google Scholar, gives the fullest available list.
(42) P.S.A.S., xxxix, p. 312.
(43) Romilly Allen, Early Christian Monuments of Scotland.
(44) Hook, and Morant, write (Biometrika, xviii, p. 101)Google Scholar: “The Iron Age skulls (from England and lowland Scotland) all form a homogeneous population distinguished from the neolithic type by … We can only suppose that it represents an invading people which entirely displaced and probably largely exterminated the settled Bronze Age folk over the greater part of Britain.”
(45) Details of the evolution of the broch from types of stone fort termed “galleried duns” are given in the R.C. Report, Hebrides, and by Curle, in Antiquity, i, p. 290.Google Scholar For the influence of the wheel- or waag-type of Earth House, see the same authority in P.S.A.S., lv, p. 90. Since, however, the structures in question are not demonstrably older than the brochs, the theory cannot be regarded as proven. The broch may have been created where the majority have been found, i.e. in Orkney and Caithness. The intrusive nature of the broch culture none the less proves the foreign ancestry of the broch builders. Architecturally the broch may be connected with the murus gallicus which uses double walls held together by wooden cross-beams.
