ScARF 2012 Panel Report: Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Scotland

Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Scotland is traditionally defined by the introduction and use of copper and copper alloys for the manufacture of tools, ornaments and weapons. It is, however much more than that, forming a less than well-understood `tunnel¿ into which the Neolithic `cattle train¿ disappears to emerge as an `iron horse¿ two millennia later. Gradually, what has occurred in the tunnel is being elucidated, as research reveals sites and objects, assumed to have been from earlier or later periods, to be of Bronze Age date, whether it be hillforts, Clava cairns, recumbent stone circles and small henges in north-east Scotland, or, of course, hut-circles. Bronze metallurgy, by virtue of its dependence on supplies of copper and tin (and gold) from often distant sources, provides a category of evidence through which the place of Scotland in a wider system of exchange and circulation can be explored, and allows precious insight into the dynamics of contacts at this period of prehistory. The very nature of Bronze Age technology dictated that Scotland was to become part of an international network facilitating the distribution of metal and other materials, and tracing links with communities in Ireland, England and Europe is a growing research area.
The Scottish Chalcolithic and Bronze Age also offer a uniquely strong data set to study the effects of climate and environmental change on past communities. Palaeoenvironmental data for the period is strong, supplemented by increasing evidence of settlement systems. This was a period of dramatic social, economic, and cultural change, characterised by changes in social stratification, rich regional diversity and an increase in inter-regional, indeed international, interaction, and development of the landscape both as a physical and cosmological resource. The period is now being appreciated on its own terms and the fascinating insight it can provide both as a coherent region, and within a European context.