The first farmers: the neolithic of east-central Scotland in its wider context

The research reported upon had one aim: to create a modern account ofthe inception and development of farming in lowland east-central Scotland (defined as the old local authority Regions ofTayside and Fife, and the adjacent parts ofthe Regions of Central and Grampian), taking particular account of potential inter-regional differences, and in a coherent national interpretative context.There are seven specific objectives:1. to reveal and explore the extent and diversity of the remains of Neolithic occupation in the area, in part through creating corpora of site types2. to document and explain the long histories of use and change on Neolithic/early Bronze Age ceremonial/burial sites.3. to set the rich ceremonial/burial evidence into a more rounded settlement and environmental context4. to assess the evidence for, and establish the extent and nature of inter-regional variation throughout the Neolithic5. to place the development of locally appropriate explanatory models in the history of archaeological thought6. to set the study of the archaeology of lowland Scotland in a wider historical/cultural context7. to identify and quantify the threats to the survival of the Neolithic archaeological resourceThe research was undertaken through the gathering of new information in the field, reinterpreting the results of older fieldwork in the light of more recent understanding, and through survey of relevant archaeological, historical and political literature.THE MATERIAL SUBMITTED:1. G J Barclay & M Tolan 1991 'Trial excavation of a terrace-edge enclosure at North Mains, Strathallan, Perthshire1, Proceedings ofthe Society ofAntiquaries ofScotland, 120(1990), 45-53. | 2. G J Barclay & G S Maxwell 1992 'Excavation of a Neolithic long mortuary enclosure within the Roman legionary fortress at Inchtuthil, Perthshire', Proceedings ofthe Society ofAntiquaries ofScotland, 121 (1991), 27-44. | 3. G J Barclay & C J Russell-White 1994 'Excavations in the ceremonial complex ofthe fourth to second millennium BC at Balfarg/Balbirnie, Glenrothes, Fife', Proceedings of the Society ofAntiquaries ofScotland, 123 (1993), 43-210. | 4. G J Barclay 1996 'Neolithic buildings in Scotland' in T Darvill and J Thomas (eds) Neolithic Buildings in Northwest Europe and Beyond, 61-75. [=Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers 1: Oxbow Monograph 57], Oxbow: Oxford. | 5. G J Barclay (ed) 1997b State-funded Rescue Archaeology in Scotland: Past, Present and Future. [=Elistoric Scotland Ancient Monuments Division Occasional Paper 2], Historic Scotland: Edinburgh. | 6. G J Barclay 1997a 'The Neolithic', in K Edwards & I Ralston (eds) Scotland: environment and archaeology 8,000 BC to AD 1,000, 127-149. Wiley: Chichester. | 7. G J Barclay & G S Maxwell 1998 The Cleaven Dyke and Littleour: monuments in the Neolithic ofTayside (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph 13). | 8. G J Barclay & CLN Ruggles 1999 'On the frontier? Recumbent stone circles in Kincardine and Angus', Tayside & Fife Archaeological Journal 5, 12-22. | 9. Barclay, G J 2000 'Cairnpapple re-visited: 1948-1998' Proceedings ofthe Prehistoric Society 65 (1999), 17-46. | 10. C L N Ruggles & G J Barclay 2000 'Cosmology, calendars and society in Neolithic Orkney', Antiquity 74 (2000), 62-74. | 11. G J Barclay 2000 'Between Orkney and Wessex: the search for the regional Neolithics of Britain', Ritchie, A (ed) Neolithic Orkney in its European Context, 275-285