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

Gordon Noble; Kenneth Brophy

doi:10.1017/S0003598X00068319

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

Archaeology

University of Glasgow

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

22 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 language	English
Pages (from-to)	787-804
Number of pages	18
Journal	Antiquity
Volume	85
Issue number	329
Early online date	1 Sept 2011
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00068319
Publication status	Published - 1 Sept 2011

Bibliographical note

The SERF project is funded by Historic Scotland, the University of Glasgow and the University of Aberdeen.
The initial two years of the project were also funded by a British Academy grant (LRG: 45610). We would like to
thank our SERF co-director, Stephen Driscoll, for his continuing support and encouragement, and Tessa Poller
for her assistance and patience. Thanks also to Alison Sheridan for commenting on an earlier draft of this paper,
which focused our minds. Our discussion of the dagger burial grave goods drew largely on the work of a range
of colleagues, including the conservator Pieta Greaves, who have been, and still are, working on the contents of
the cist, for which we are extremely grateful. Much of the contents of this paper could not have been written
without the hard work of a tireless army of students and volunteers who have worked with us at Forteviot since
2006 – our thanks also go out to them.

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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Cite this

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

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.",

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

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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