Medieval Scotland: A Future for its Past Images © as noted in the text ScARF Summary Medieval Panel Document September 2012 i Medieval Scotland: a future for its past ScARF Summary Medieval Panel Report Mark Hall & Neil Price (eds) With panel contributions from: Colleen Batey, Alice Blackwell, Ewan Campbell, David Caldwell, Martin Carver, Piers Dixon, Richard Fawcett, Derek Hall, Heather James, Catherine Smith, Judith Stones, Sarah Thomas, Alex Woolf and Peter Yeoman. For contributions, images, feedback, critical comment and participation at workshops: Tom Addymann, Derek Alexander, Sue Anderson, Beverley Ballin Smith, David Bowler, Niall Brady, Stuart Campbell, Alison Cameron, Jonathon Cox, Barbara Crawford, Anne Crone, Stephen Driscoll, Katherine Forsyth, Sally Foster, Julie Franklin, Shannon Fraser, Strat Halliday, Jane Geddes, Martin Goldberg, Meggen Gondek, Moira Grieg, George Haggarty, Mhairi Hastie, David Hinton, Fraser Hunter, Alison Kyle, John Lawson, Chris Lowe, Hugh McBrien, Adrian Maldonado, Roger Mercer, Coralie Mills, Chris Morris, Charles Murray, Hilary Murray, Gordon Noble, Richard Oram, Tony Pollard, Niall Sharples, Douglas Speirs, Lisbeth Thoms, Marlo Willows and Sarah Winlow. ii Executive Summary Why research Medieval Scotland? Scotland’s medieval archaeology is extremely rich. Through its improved understanding, study and conservation, fascinating and critical aspects of the past can be explored, such as the development of towns, the arrival and integration of new peoples, how people farmed the land, and the development of political and religious systems. These multi-dimensional stories are played out at various levels: local, regional, national and international (principally but not solely European). Some of the issues and challenges faced by people then are equally familiar today, some will seem strange and exotic, and they fuse together in an intricate story that is the root from which modern Scotland has grown. In order to investigate these topics, there are a range of strategies to call upon, from survey and excavation, to artefact and environmental analysis and documentary history. Combining these approaches reveal the richness of the past, and the complexity and breadth of life in medieval Scotland. Panel Task and Remit The Medieval Panel was tasked critically to review the current state of knowledge regarding Medieval Scotland, and to consider how that knowledge could be added to, re-evaluated and accessed. The key aim was to develop a template for maintaining a relevant, responsive and inclusive research framework. The Medieval period is treated as a whole, rather than divided into unrelated Early and Late episodes. This allows the exploration of topics over a millennium and more, allowing themes from the origins of the post-Roman kingdoms and the arrival of Christianity to the Union of the Crowns and the impact of the Reformation (approximately 600 – 1600 AD), to be traced. The result is this report, outlining the different areas of research into Medieval life and highlighting the research topics to be aspired to. The report is structured by theme: From Northern Britain to the idea of Scotland - Tribes, Kingdoms, States?; Lifestyles and living spaces; Mentalities - Ethnicity, Identity, Gender and Spirituality; Empowerment; and Parameters. Each theme comprises a critical review of current understanding and sets out a short section of future areas of research. The document is reinforced by material on-line which provides further detail and resources. The Medieval Scottish Archaeological Research Framework is intended as a resource to be utilised by all, and built upon and kept updated both by those it may help to inspire and inform, and, it is hoped, by those who are brought to identify any of the errors and omissions that it may reveal. Future Research The main recommendations of the panel report can be summarised under five key headings. Underpinning all five areas is the recognition that human narratives remain crucial for ensuring the widest access to our shared past. There is no wish to see political and economic narratives abandoned but the need is recognised for there to be an expansion to more social narratives to fully explore the potential of the diverse evidence base. The questions that can be asked are here framed in a national context but they need to be supported and improved a) by the development of regional research frameworks, and b) by an enhanced study of Scotland’s international context through time. 1. From North Britain to the Idea of Scotland: Understanding why, where and how ‘Scotland’ emerges provides a focal point of research. Investigating state formation requires work from i Medieval Scotland: a future for its past a variety of sources, exploring the relationships between centres of consumption - royal, ecclesiastical and urban - and their hinterlands. Working from site-specific work to regional analysis, researchers can explore how what would become ‘Scotland’ came to be, and whence sprang its inspiration. 2. Lifestyles and Living Spaces: Holistic approaches to exploring medieval settlement should be promoted, combining landscape studies with artefactual, environmental, and documentary work. Understanding the role of individual sites within wider local, regional and national settlement systems should be promoted, and chronological frameworks developed to chart the changing nature of Medieval settlement. 3. Mentalities: The holistic understanding of medieval belief (particularly, but not exclusively, in its early medieval or early historic phase) needs to broaden its contextual understanding with reference to prehistoric or inherited belief systems and frames of reference. Collaborative approaches should draw on international parallels and analogues in pursuit of defining and contrasting local or regional belief systems through integrated studies of portable material culture, monumentality and landscape. 4. Empowerment: Revisiting museum collections and renewing the study of newly retrieved artefacts is vital to a broader understanding of the dynamics of writing within society. Text needs to be seen less as a metaphor and more as a technological and social innovation in material culture which will help the understanding of it as an experienced, imaginatively rich reality of life. In archaeological terms, the study of the relatively neglected cultural areas of sensory perception, memory, learning and play needs to be promoted to enrich the understanding of past social behaviours. 5. Parameters: Multi-disciplinary, collaborative, and cross-sector approaches should be encouraged in order to release the research potential of all sectors of archaeology. Creative solutions should be sought to the challenges of transmitting the importance of archaeological work and conserving the resource for current and future research. ii Table of Contents Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................. i Why research Medieval Scotland? ...................................................................................................... i Panel Task and Remit........................................................................................................................... i Future Research ................................................................................................................................... i Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................... iii List of Figures ......................................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ........................................................................................................................................... v 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 In the beginning was the framework ...................................................................................... 1 1.2 Defining the Medieval ............................................................................................................. 2 1.3 Appropriating the Medieval .................................................................................................... 5 1.4 The Challenge of Fieldwork in Scottish Medieval Archaeology .............................................. 7 1.5 History of Research ................................................................................................................. 9 Urban archaeology ................................................................................................................... 10 2. From North Britain to the idea of Scotland: Tribes, Kingdoms, States? ....................................... 12 2.1 Beginnings ............................................................................................................................. 12 2.2 Politics and Power Structures ............................................................................................... 12 2.3 Norse Scotland ...................................................................................................................... 15 2.4 The Highland Lowland Divide: Clans and kinship across the social spectrum ...................... 20 2.5 Peoples and Territories ........................................................................................................