A contribution to the Later Prehistoric and Early Medieval (400 BC - AD 650) settlement record of Galloway
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Date
02/07/2019Author
Toolis, Ronan Patrick
Metadata
Abstract
This critical review concerns a sequence of two archaeological excavations
and a regional synthesis undertaken between 2003 and 2012 and
subsequently published between 2007 and 2016. The various projects were
focussed upon Galloway and were primarily concerned with settlement
patterns between 400 BC and AD 650. The published work proposed for
consideration comprises a monograph and three articles (Appendices B-E).
Initial examination of the background to previous research into the later
prehistoric and early medieval settlement record of Galloway, provided in
Chapters 2 and 3, outlines the basis for the author’s research. The
archaeological evidence recovered from the writer’s excavation of
Carghidown Promontory Fort and Trusty’s Hill Fort is discussed in Chapters
4 and 5 respectively, revealing aspects of the later prehistoric and early
medieval settlement pattern in Galloway within a local, regional and national
context.
This is followed, in Chapter 6, by an exploration of the classification,
morphology and chronology of the later prehistoric and early medieval
settlement record in Galloway, building on the results of the author’s previous
work and examining the ephemeral basis for many site classifications and
the distinctions made between sites in Galloway and other regions of
southern Scotland. The concluding chapter (7) examines through regional,
national, international and chronological perspectives how the archaeology
of later prehistoric and early medieval Galloway is embedded within core
underlying patterns of settlement and culture in Scotland between 400 BC
and AD 650. This final chapter also draws out contrasts during this period
between settlement and culture in Scotland and that of neighbouring
countries.