Ritual and remembrance at a prehistoric ceremonial complex in central Scotland: excavations at Forteviot, Perth and Kinross

Gordon Noble* (Corresponding Author), Kenneth Brophy

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Aerial photography and excavations have brought to notice a major prehistoric ceremonial complex in central Scotland comparable to Stonehenge, although largely built in earth and timber. Beginning, like Stonehenge, as a cremation cemetery, it launched its monumentality by means of an immense circle of tree trunks, and developed it with smaller circles of posts and an earth bank (henge). A change of political mood in the Early Bronze Age is marked by one of Scotland's best preserved dagger-burials in a stone cist with an engraved lid. The perishable (or reusable) materials meant that this great centre lay for millennia under ploughed fields, until it was adopted, by design or by chance, as a centre of the Pictish kings.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)787-804
Number of pages18
JournalAntiquity
Volume85
Issue number329
Early online date1 Sep 2011
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sep 2011

Keywords

  • Scotland
  • Strathearn
  • Neolithic
  • Bronze Age
  • third millenium BC
  • cremation
  • palisaded enclosure
  • timber circles
  • henge
  • cist burial
  • dagger burial
  • Pictish palace

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