Agriculture in prehistoric Scotland
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Agriculture in prehistoric Scotland includes all forms of farm production in the modern boundaries of Scotland before the beginning of the early historic era. Scotland has between a fifth and a sixth of the arable or good pastoral land of England and Wales, mostly in the south and east. Heavy rainfall encouraged the spread of acidic blanket peat bog, which with wind and salt spray, made most of the western islands treeless. Hills, mountains, quicksands and marshes made internal communication and agriculture difficult. In the
Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
period, from around 6,000 years ago, there is evidence of permanent settlements and farming. The two main sources of food were grain and cow's milk. In the early
Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
, arable land spread at the expense of forest, but towards the end of the period there is evidence of the abandonment of farming in the uplands and deterioration of soils. From the
Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
, hill forts in southern Scotland are associated with cultivation ridges and terraces.
Souterrain ''Souterrain'' (from French ''sous terrain'', meaning "under ground") is a name given by archaeologists to a type of underground structure associated mainly with the European Atlantic Iron Age. These structures appear to have been brought northw ...
s, small underground constructions, may have been for storing perishable agricultural products. Extensive prehistoric field systems underlie existing boundaries in some Lowland areas, suggesting that the fertile plains were already densely exploited for agriculture. Birch, oak, and hazel regrowth during the Roman occupation of Britain indicates a decline in agriculture.


Land and climate

Scotland is roughly half the size of England and Wales and has approximately the same amount of coastline, but only between a fifth and a sixth of the amount of the arable or good pastoral land, under 60 metres above sea level, and most of this is located in the south and east. This made marginal pastoral farming and fishing, the key factors in the pre-modern economy.E. Gemmill and N. J. Mayhew, ''Changing Values in Medieval Scotland: a Study of Prices, Money, and Weights and Measures'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), , pp. 8–10. Its east Atlantic position means that it has very heavy rainfall: today about 700 cm per year in the east and over 1,000 cm in the west. This encouraged the spread of blanket peat bog, the acidity of which, combined with high level of wind and salt spray, made most of the western islands treeless. The existence of hills, mountains, quicksands and marshes made agriculture and internal communication difficult. At times during the last interglacial period (130,000–70,000 BCE) Europe had a climate warmer than it is today, and early humans may have made their way to Scotland, though archaeologists have found no traces of this. Glaciers then scoured their way across most of Britain, and only after the ice retreated did Scotland again become habitable, around 9600 BCE.
Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...
hunter-gatherer encampments formed the first known settlements, and archaeologists have dated an encampment near Biggar to around 8500 BCE. Numerous other sites found around Scotland build up a picture of highly mobile boat-using people making tools from bone, stone and antlers. The oldest house for which there is evidence in Britain is the oval structure of wooden posts found at
South Queensferry Queensferry, also called South Queensferry or simply "The Ferry", is a town to the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Traditionally a royal burgh of West Lothian, it is administered by the City of Edinburgh council area. It lies ten miles to the nort ...
near the
Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...
, dating from the
Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...
period, about 8240 BCE.


Neolithic

From the Neolithic period, beginning around 6,000 years ago, there is evidence of permanent settlements and farming. This includes the settlement at Dunning in Perthshire, dating from 3800 to 3700 BCE, which includes faint plough marks, probably made by a hand-held scratch plough known as an ard, which does not turn over the soil. There is the well-preserved stone house at
Knap of Howar The Knap of Howar () on the island of Papa Westray in Orkney, Scotland is a Neolithic farmstead which may be the oldest preserved stone house in northern Europe. Radiocarbon dating shows that it was occupied from 3700 BC to 2800 BC, earlier th ...
on
Papa Westray Papa Westray () ( sco, Papa Westree), also known as Papay, is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, United Kingdom. The fertile soilKeay, J. & Keay, J. (1994) ''Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland''. London. HarperCollins. has long been a draw ...
, dating from around 3500 BCEI. Maxwell, "A History of Scotland’s Masonry Construction" in P. Wilson, ed.
''Building with Scottish Stone''
(Arcamedia, 2005), , p. 19.
and the village of similar houses at
Skara Brae Skara Brae is a stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, the largest island in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland. Consisting of ten clustered houses, made of flagstones, in earthen dams t ...
on West Mainland,
Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...
from about 500 years later.F. Pryor, ''Britain B.C.: Life in Britain and Ireland before the Romans'' (London: Harper Collins, 2003), , pp. 98–104 and 246–50. Evidence of prehistoric farming includes small plots of improved land, with simple stone boundaries. In Shetland these have been found under peat and on the mainland they are associated with cairnfields, piles of rocks that have been cleared from fields.I. D. Whyte, "Economy: primary sector: 1 Agriculture to 1770s", in M. Lynch, ed., ''The Oxford Companion to Scottish History'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), , pp. 206–7. There was removal of oak-birch woodland in areas of good coastal or river access where archaeological remains from the period are most abundant, mainly through livestock grazing. Archaeological evidence of pollen, pottery, settlements and human remains, indicates that the two main sources of food were grain and cow's milk, in a pattern that probably remained constant until the High Middle Ages.A. Fenton, "Diet", in M. Lynch, ed., ''The Oxford Companion to Scottish History'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), , pp. 167–70. There is also some limited evidence of the cultivation of flax from this period.


Bronze Age

From the beginning of the Bronze Age, about 2000 BCE, extensive analyses of Black Loch in
Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...
indicate that arable land spread at the expense of forest.T. C. Smout, R. MacDonald and F. Watson, ''A History of the Native Woodlands of Scotland 1500–1920'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2nd edn., 2007), , p. 34. The oak-birch woodlands were eroded in the more accessible areas of the uplands by seasonal grazing of livestock and through some use of
slash and burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed vegeta ...
and woodcutting methods of clearance.S. Wilson
''The Native Woodlands of Scotland: Ecology, Conservation and Management''
(1966, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2015), .
However, towards the end of the period, pollen analyses indicate that climate deterioration meant that arable farming was abandoned at upland sites and there were increases in the intensity of
anthropogenic Anthropogenic ("human" + "generating") is an adjective that may refer to: * Anthropogeny, the study of the origins of humanity Counterintuitively, anthropogenic may also refer to things that have been generated by humans, as follows: * Human im ...
impacts at lowland sites, of agriculture leading to changes in the structure of soils. Traditionally this was seen as leading to the abandonment of intensive agriculture, but more recent studies have indicated that it was possible to renew and maintain the fertility of soils. There is scattered evidence of field systems in this period, with extensive walls in some areas, suggesting pastoral agriculture. Excavations like that at the
Scord of Brouster The Scord of Brouster is one of the earliest Neolithic farm sites in Shetland, Scotland. It has been dated to 2220 BC with a time window of 80 years on either side. It comprises three houses, several fields surrounded by walls, and a cairn ...
field-system, with its enclosing walls, low
lynchet A lynchet or linchet is an Terrace (earthworks), earth terrace found on the side of a hill. Lynchets are a feature of ancient field systems of the British Isles. They are commonly found in vertical rows and more commonly referred to as "strip lyn ...
s and clearance heaps, suggests that it was part of a larger enclosed landscape. A
rig Rig may refer to: Objects and structures * Rig (fishing), an arrangement of items used for fishing * Drilling rig, a structure housing equipment used to drill or extract oil from underground * Rig (stage lighting) * rig, a horse-drawn carriage ...
discovered at
North Mains North Mains is a henge in Strathearn on Strathallan Estate between Crieff and Auchterarder in Perthshire, Scotland (not in the valley known as Strathallan). It was excavated in 1979 and the final report was published in 1983. Like most henges Nort ...
indicates that there may have been ridged field surfaces that have been eroded by later agricultural activity. Key arable crops included barley and flax. Oats were not cultivated and grew as wild grass.


Iron Age

From the Iron Age, beginning in the seventh century BCE, as elsewhere in Europe, hill forts were first introduced. Some of these forts in southern Scotland are associated with cultivation ridges and terraces. Over 400
souterrain ''Souterrain'' (from French ''sous terrain'', meaning "under ground") is a name given by archaeologists to a type of underground structure associated mainly with the European Atlantic Iron Age. These structures appear to have been brought northw ...
s, small underground constructions, have been discovered in Scotland, many of them in the south-east, and although few have been dated, those that have suggest a construction date in the second or third centuries CE. They are usually found close to settlements (whose timber frames are much less well-preserved) and may have been for storing perishable agricultural products. There are about 100 hollow-walled circular drystone
broch A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure found in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification "complex Atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. Their origin is a matter of some controversy. Origin ...
towers, probably dating from about 200 BCE, and unique to Scotland. Many had surrounding ditches or defensive walls, which may have contained several houses and they were probably designed to defend the most valuable stretches of agricultural land. Aerial photography has revealed extensive prehistoric field systems that underlie existing boundaries in some Lowland areas, suggesting that the fertile plains were already densely exploited for agriculture. There was extensive removal of oak-elm-hazel woodland, initially near settlements and major thoroughfares, particularly from felling for fuel. Domesticated animals included sheep and smaller numbers of cattle and pigs.F. McCormick and P. C. Buckland, "Faunal change: the vertebrate fauna", K. J. Edwards and I. Ralston, ''Scotland After the Ice Age: Environment, Archaeology and History, 8000 BC – AD 1000'' (Edinburgh; Edinburgh University Press, 2003), , p. 101. During the period of Roman occupation of what is now northern England, and occasional advances into Southern Scotland, there was re-growth of birch-oak woodlands for five centuries, suggesting that the Roman invasions had a negative impact on the native population and the extent of agriculture.


Notes

{{Prehistoric Scotland
Prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
Prehistoric Scotland