Lake and crannog: A 2500-year palaeoenvironmental record of continuity and change in NE Scotland

Samantha Jones; Olalla López-Costas; A. Martínez Cortizas; Timothy Mighall; Gordon Noble; Michael Stratigos

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107532

Lake and crannog: A 2500-year palaeoenvironmental record of continuity and change in NE Scotland  

Samantha Jones^* (Corresponding Author), Olalla López-Costas, A. Martínez Cortizas, Timothy Mighall, Gordon Noble, Michael Stratigos

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

7 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Wetland environments have been important resources for human habitation since prehistoric times and in parts of northern Europe these have witnessed the construction of artificial islet settlements, known as ‘crannogs’ in Scotland and Ireland. This paper presents a high-resolution multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental study from the Loch of Leys, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the site of a recently excavated crannog that provides a chronological context for its inhabitation. The combined datasets demonstrate that the first occupation from AD 20-210 coincided not only with a transitional phase from lake to wetland (mire) but also with the timing of the first major Roman campaigns in northeast Scotland. Techniques including microfossil analysis, geochemistry, IR-spectroscopy and
physical properties integrated with archaeological and historical records have helped to better define both natural changes that took place in the wetland environment and human activity (agriculture, fires, metal working) spanning the Roman Iron Age through to the present. This has allowed a better understanding of the responses of existing Iron Age communities to Roman military activity (e.g. through continuity or change in land use) as well as the resources exploited in frontier zones during the Roman and post Roman eras. This has wider significance not just for Scotland but also for other parts of Europe that had
similar frontiers and conflict zones during the Roman period.

Original language	English
Article number	107532
Number of pages	22
Journal	Quaternary Science Reviews
Volume	285
Early online date	2 May 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107532
Publication status	Published - Jun 2022

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
Special acknowledgements go to Audrey Innes for her laboratory support, to Laura McHardie who originally extracted the core with Michael J. Stratigos.
Thanks are owed to the Leys Estate and the then Estate Manager Thys Simpson for allowing access, help in taking the core and overall support for work in the former loch. Thanks to the Hunter Archaeological and Historical Trust who funded the fieldwork. The article was written as part of the Leverhulme Trust funded project ‘Comparative Kingship: the early Medieval kingdoms of Northern Britain and Ireland’ (Grant RG13876-10). Authors would like to thank the use of RIAIDT-USC analytical facilities. OLC is funded by JIN project (PID2019-111683RJ-I00) Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion and Beca Leonardo a
Investigadores y Creadores Culturales 2020 de la Fundación BBVA.

open access via Elsevier agreement

Keywords

Crannog
eastern Scotland
environmental change
Roman Iron Age
Early & Post Medieval
Palynology
Geochemistry
FTIR-ATR

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107532Licence: CC BY

Jones_QSR_Lake_And_Crannog_VoR
© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Final published version, 5.87 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{2be1a9287f354383a47fff9f72798e2e,

title = "Lake and crannog: A 2500-year palaeoenvironmental record of continuity and change in NE Scotland  ",

abstract = "Wetland environments have been important resources for human habitation since prehistoric times and in parts of northern Europe these have witnessed the construction of artificial islet settlements, known as {\textquoteleft}crannogs{\textquoteright} in Scotland and Ireland. This paper presents a high-resolution multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental study from the Loch of Leys, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the site of a recently excavated crannog that provides a chronological context for its inhabitation. The combined datasets demonstrate that the first occupation from AD 20-210 coincided not only with a transitional phase from lake to wetland (mire) but also with the timing of the first major Roman campaigns in northeast Scotland. Techniques including microfossil analysis, geochemistry, IR-spectroscopy andphysical properties integrated with archaeological and historical records have helped to better define both natural changes that took place in the wetland environment and human activity (agriculture, fires, metal working) spanning the Roman Iron Age through to the present. This has allowed a better understanding of the responses of existing Iron Age communities to Roman military activity (e.g. through continuity or change in land use) as well as the resources exploited in frontier zones during the Roman and post Roman eras. This has wider significance not just for Scotland but also for other parts of Europe that hadsimilar frontiers and conflict zones during the Roman period. ",

keywords = "Crannog, eastern Scotland, environmental change, Roman Iron Age, Early & Post Medieval, Palynology, Geochemistry, FTIR-ATR",

author = "Samantha Jones and Olalla L{\'o}pez-Costas and {Mart{\'i}nez Cortizas}, A. and Timothy Mighall and Gordon Noble and Michael Stratigos",

note = "Acknowledgements Special acknowledgements go to Audrey Innes for her laboratory support, to Laura McHardie who originally extracted the core with Michael J. Stratigos. Thanks are owed to the Leys Estate and the then Estate Manager Thys Simpson for allowing access, help in taking the core and overall support for work in the former loch. Thanks to the Hunter Archaeological and Historical Trust who funded the fieldwork. The article was written as part of the Leverhulme Trust funded project {\textquoteleft}Comparative Kingship: the early Medieval kingdoms of Northern Britain and Ireland{\textquoteright} (Grant RG13876-10). Authors would like to thank the use of RIAIDT-USC analytical facilities. OLC is funded by JIN project (PID2019-111683RJ-I00) Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion and Beca Leonardo a Investigadores y Creadores Culturales 2020 de la Fundaci{\'o}n BBVA. open access via Elsevier agreement",

year = "2022",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107532",

language = "English",

volume = "285",

journal = "Quaternary Science Reviews",

issn = "0277-3791",

publisher = "Elsevier",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Lake and crannog

T2 - A 2500-year palaeoenvironmental record of continuity and change in NE Scotland  

AU - Jones, Samantha

AU - López-Costas, Olalla

AU - Martínez Cortizas, A.

AU - Mighall, Timothy

AU - Noble, Gordon

AU - Stratigos, Michael

N1 - Acknowledgements Special acknowledgements go to Audrey Innes for her laboratory support, to Laura McHardie who originally extracted the core with Michael J. Stratigos. Thanks are owed to the Leys Estate and the then Estate Manager Thys Simpson for allowing access, help in taking the core and overall support for work in the former loch. Thanks to the Hunter Archaeological and Historical Trust who funded the fieldwork. The article was written as part of the Leverhulme Trust funded project ‘Comparative Kingship: the early Medieval kingdoms of Northern Britain and Ireland’ (Grant RG13876-10). Authors would like to thank the use of RIAIDT-USC analytical facilities. OLC is funded by JIN project (PID2019-111683RJ-I00) Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion and Beca Leonardo a Investigadores y Creadores Culturales 2020 de la Fundación BBVA. open access via Elsevier agreement

PY - 2022/6

Y1 - 2022/6

N2 - Wetland environments have been important resources for human habitation since prehistoric times and in parts of northern Europe these have witnessed the construction of artificial islet settlements, known as ‘crannogs’ in Scotland and Ireland. This paper presents a high-resolution multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental study from the Loch of Leys, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the site of a recently excavated crannog that provides a chronological context for its inhabitation. The combined datasets demonstrate that the first occupation from AD 20-210 coincided not only with a transitional phase from lake to wetland (mire) but also with the timing of the first major Roman campaigns in northeast Scotland. Techniques including microfossil analysis, geochemistry, IR-spectroscopy andphysical properties integrated with archaeological and historical records have helped to better define both natural changes that took place in the wetland environment and human activity (agriculture, fires, metal working) spanning the Roman Iron Age through to the present. This has allowed a better understanding of the responses of existing Iron Age communities to Roman military activity (e.g. through continuity or change in land use) as well as the resources exploited in frontier zones during the Roman and post Roman eras. This has wider significance not just for Scotland but also for other parts of Europe that hadsimilar frontiers and conflict zones during the Roman period.

AB - Wetland environments have been important resources for human habitation since prehistoric times and in parts of northern Europe these have witnessed the construction of artificial islet settlements, known as ‘crannogs’ in Scotland and Ireland. This paper presents a high-resolution multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental study from the Loch of Leys, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the site of a recently excavated crannog that provides a chronological context for its inhabitation. The combined datasets demonstrate that the first occupation from AD 20-210 coincided not only with a transitional phase from lake to wetland (mire) but also with the timing of the first major Roman campaigns in northeast Scotland. Techniques including microfossil analysis, geochemistry, IR-spectroscopy andphysical properties integrated with archaeological and historical records have helped to better define both natural changes that took place in the wetland environment and human activity (agriculture, fires, metal working) spanning the Roman Iron Age through to the present. This has allowed a better understanding of the responses of existing Iron Age communities to Roman military activity (e.g. through continuity or change in land use) as well as the resources exploited in frontier zones during the Roman and post Roman eras. This has wider significance not just for Scotland but also for other parts of Europe that hadsimilar frontiers and conflict zones during the Roman period.

KW - Crannog

KW - eastern Scotland

KW - environmental change

KW - Roman Iron Age

KW - Early & Post Medieval

KW - Palynology

KW - Geochemistry

KW - FTIR-ATR

UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107532

U2 - 10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107532

DO - 10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107532

M3 - Article

SN - 0277-3791

VL - 285

JO - Quaternary Science Reviews

JF - Quaternary Science Reviews

M1 - 107532

ER -

Lake and crannog: A 2500-year palaeoenvironmental record of continuity and change in NE Scotland

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this