Materiality, community and identity: The Iron Age of west central Scotland

This research investigates the Iron Age of west central Scotland, an area that, compared with other parts of Scotland, has seen little archaeological research. Indeed, the region was described as a “black hole” in the influential research paper Understanding the British Iron Age: An Agenda for Action (Haselgrove et al 2001, 24-25). As such, this research greatly contributes to our knowledge of the Iron Age of this area, Scotland, and the British Isles as a whole. The detailed synthesis of Iron Age settlement that is created through this research demonstrates that this area is rich in well preserved and well excavated later prehistoric sites. By creating a new morphological framework, this thesis explores a number of important issues, particularly to do with the nature of settlement, regionality and identity. In addtion this allows us to investigate ideas to do with how communities are assembled and what this can tell us about how society was organised during the Iron Age in this part of Scotland.