Lisbeth M. Thoms.

    

Most of the people who came to the annual Clan Gathering in Glenshee last August [1975] must like me, have travelled through part of the central industrial belt of Tayside in order to get there. All over central Scotland the evidence of human activity looms larger and larger on the landscape, and one needs a very good imagination to wipe all that out and picture the scene when Man first set foot in the region some seven thousand years ago. The background in which we must place the first peoples on Tayside is one of dense deciduous forests supporting a wide variety of wild animals; Man, like all other mammals, existed in a reciprocal relationship with the natural environment to which he also was adequately adapted. This is a picture more easily conjured up when standing in Glenshee a heart of “MacThomas country”, where the magnificence of the scenery and the natural elements seem still to dominate human life.

       

Tayside’s first human inhabitants belong archaeologically to the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age period, and it is estimated that their numbers would not be much in excess of a couple of hundred. The most detailed impression that we have of Mesolithic inhabitants comes from the excavation of an archaeological site at Morton farm near Tayport, Fife. The economy was a hunting and gathering one, based on trapping game in the inland forest areas and fishing and collecting shell-fish from the coast. The debris from the middens, which were excavated at the site reflect the wide variety of mammals, birds, fish, and shellfish which was caught and collected. Evidence of dwellings and open hearths was discovered, the dwellings being little more than lean-to type structures consisting of a framework of branches probably covered with foliage or skins. Working-floors found near the dwellings were littered with a variety of stone tools plus waste flakes and rejects. Pebble flint was the most common type of stone used. Small polished flints could be set with resin into wooden shafts and perhaps bound with fibrous twine to make an arrow or spear tip. Several flints carefully placed in a shaft would make an effective harpoon. Nonetheless, it is significant that at this period Man had little or no effect on his environment but was ruled by it, though a high degree of skill was attained in utilizing various natural resources. The fight for survival, however, must have been a full-time occupation.

        

Around 4000 BC, new settlers arrived in Scotland bringing with them such revolutionary practices as the cultivation of cereals, the domestication of animals, and the production of pottery. This was the first step forward by Man towards the control of the natural environment in this region.

     

On Tayside, areas with light soils and a thin forest cover were probably cleared by the earliest farmers, using stone axes, before turning over the soil with a digging stick and then sowing the crop. The ability to produce a surplus of foodstuffs resulted in larger groups of people being supported and a more settled way of life being adopted.

     

The most enduring monuments of the Neolithic farmers are the large tombs which they erected for the communal burial of the dead. On the fringe of the Tayside region, two such monuments of the type known as earthen long barrows have been identified in recent years, both in south Kincardineshire: one at Dalladies, the other at Capo. At Dalladies, excavation of the site revealed evidence of a rectangular “mortuary house” constructed of timber and stone, built to receive a number of bodies before a large mound was heaped on top. Before excavation, the mound at Dalladies was wedge- shaped and measured 65m in length, was 18m wide at the east end and 9m wide at the west end. Excavation showed the mound to have been built entirely of turf and top soil.

    

With these monuments we are dealing with a formally expressed architectural solution to the problem of funerary ritual, and in such the portrayal of command and organisation of labour beyond that possible of just a family group. We can envisage for the Neolithic period as a whole a more settled and complex society, with respect, order, and perhaps hierarchy expressed in the construction of the burial monuments. Indeed,we might attribute to the Neolithic period the beginnings of the Clan system which was to become so important in Scotland thousands of years later!

        

So far, we have been dealing with peoples capable only of a stone technology, but of course one of the most important stages in Man’s mastery of natural resources was the discovery and use of metals. This demanded an entirely new complex of technological innovations, and involved the development of new s k ills and new habits on the part of those who had previously worked only in natural substances in their raw state. The technological step of entering the Bronze Age results in the break from more or less self-sufficiency to the rise of skilled specialists (to prospect for ores and to smelt metals) and a new artisan class within the social structure. The first people to arrive on Tayside with a knowledge of the use of metals are known as the Beaker people because of their custom of interring a distinctive type of pottery with the dead. These people arrived in the centuries following 2500 BC in several migratory waves from the Rhine- land and Low Countries, the evidence for this being almost totally from the graves. The usual method of burial was in a crouched position in stone-lined pits, called short cists, with accompanying pottery vessel, which ideally might have contained some potent drink to cheer the unknown road to death! Other items are sometimes found in graves, such as flint arrowheads, knives, scrapers, and more rarely, bronze weapons such as daggers and flat axes. The interaction of the Beaker people and the indigenous Neolithic population resulted in the latter adopting the rite of the single grave burial, but instead of burying Beakers with the dead, they deposited a type of pot called a Food Vessel which, like the Beaker, is usually richly decorated.

     

During the second half of the second millennium BC, the production of metal-work flourished. The range of bronze types included tools such as axes, chisels, and knife-blades, and weapons such as spearheads, dirks, and rapiers. Early in the first millennium BC, the sword appears for the first time among bronze weapons. The bronze objects ploughed up in a field on Pyotdykes farm, near Dundee, some ten years ago, are excellent examples of later Bronze Age metalwork. Two swords and a socketed spearhead with a decorated gold band encircling the mouth of the socket were recovered. The increase in manufacture of bronzes was paralleled to some extent by the growth in the use of gold ornaments. The possession of gold objects, and to a certain extent metal ones, was probably the privilege of only a few people, perhaps a chieftain ruling class, and it would seem that for the first time gold had become the insignia of wealth and power. If all men were equal in the Bronze Age, some were more equal than others.

      

Unfortunately, we know next to nothing about the habitation sites of the Bronze Age people: we know a great deal about their death and burial, very little of how or where they lived. The converse is true, however, for the later Iron Age period, where we know of many habitation sites, but few burial ones. I wonder, however, just how many of the thousands of people who enjoy the splendid scenery of Tayside are aware that on the tops of several hills remain the traces of some of the most impressive monuments of the Scottish Iron Age. These monuments are known as hill-forts, and were probably defensive in purpose. An area on the top of hills such as the White Caterthun, near Edzell or Barry Hill near Alyth, was enclosed and defended by a rampart and ditch, sometimes by a series of ramparts and ditches. Sometimes the ramparts were constructed of e and turf, but more often, in this region, of dry stonewalling. In a number of cases, the dry built walls of the forts were held together by a system of bonding timbers so as to prevent the down-slipping of such a heavy mass. If in such a wall the timbers caught fire, either accidentally or at the hands of the enemy, then in certain conditions on the windy hilltop such a high temperature could be reached as to cause the stone to melt into slag-like masses. Hill-forts where this has happened are known as “vitrified forts”. The area enclosed by these forts varies considerably, and so therefore must the size of the communities that used them. On Tayside, few hill-forts exceed five acres in size. Nonetheless, immense effort and discipline must have been involved in building such defences and the dwelling huts within them. It has been estimated that for the vitrified fort at Finavon, in Angus, 250,000 cubic feet of stone and 100,000 cubic feet of timber must been required.

    

Few sites have been archaeologically excavated and many problems remain unresolved; what exactly were these monuments for? Were they representative of a clan or tribal addiction to warfare? Were they permanently occupied or temporary defensive retreats? Archaeological finds amount to just coarse pottery, the occasional jet ring, and some stone tools which do not give much clue to cultural affinities or social organisation.

     

Economic life was probably based on stock-breeding, sheep-rearing, and some arable crop-growing. Occupation of hill-forts, in one form or another, must have spanned many centuries, probably from around the seventh century BC to the first centuries AD. By no means everyone was living in hill-forts at this time. Many non-fortified settlement sites are known, especially in the highland glens and with notable examples in Glenshee at Dalrulzion and Dalnaglar. Sites of this type are generally circular enclosures constructed of dry stonewalling, and average about 10 metres in diameter. The excavation of the enclosures at Dalrulzion yielded evidence of occupation in the form of hearths and pieces of pottery. On the other hand, excavation of enclosures at Dalnaglar, situated to the east across the Shee Water from the Cockstane, yielded no evidence of human occupation within the enclosures. All finds of a domestic nature came from outside the walls, so perhaps these enclosures served as cattle pens.

      

Whilst taking part in the Clan gathering at the Cockstane in August, I could not help raising my eyes to look across the Shee Water and imagining some small Iron Age group gathering together with all their animals and worldly goods at the enclosures at Dalnaglar. The thought that over 2000 years ago people were battling for survival against the elements in Glenshee never ceases to amaze me; it was all so long ago -before Picts, Scots, and even MacThomases were thought of!

          

Added 24/04/2011