From Big Houses to Cult Houses: Early Neolithic Timber Halls in Scotland

Abstract

This paper addresses a small group of Neolithic monuments recorded as cropmarks in eastern lowland Scotland that have been termed timber halls, the best known example being the large rectangular building, Balbridie. Three such sites have now been excavated, and all have been shown to date to the early centuries of the Neolithic and to have been largely similar structures; further possible examples in the cropmark record will be assessed, through looking at the use of the term ‘timber hall’ in Scottish archaeology over the past 40 years. The paper will also address a number of sites, mostly known as cropmarks, which have similar dimensions and architectural traits to these timber halls. Excavations, however, have shown them to have a very different form (for instance, probably unroofed), and to date to the latter half of the 4th millennium cal BC, several centuries later than the first timber halls. Drawing on excavation results, cropmarks, and evidence from outwith Scotland, this paper will discuss the changing form and function of the Neolithic ‘timber hall’ tradition in Scotland, arguing that roofed ‘big houses’ were later replaced by ceremonial and mortuary ‘cult houses’, drawing on social memory and tradition.

Excavations at a Multi-period Site at Greenbogs, Aberdeenshire, Scotland and the Four-post Timber Architecture Tradition of Late Neolithic Britain and Ireland

“…Structures so interpreted are known from later Bronze Age contexts at sites such as Rams Hill, Berkshire (Bradley & Ellison 1975, 55, fig. 2.23) and, in an Iron Age context, the best known example is Little Woodbury, Wiltshire (Bersu 1940) (Bersu 1940, 88-9, 91) and suggested that round-houses with four-post settings were a structural form that evolved from rectangular architecture -an observation pertinent to the Neolithic context, where in Scotland at least, the later 4th millennium BC architectural forms tend to be rectangular (eg, Balfarg, Carsie Mains, and Littleour) with the emergence of circular architecture in mainland Scotland in the early 3rd millennium BC (eg, Barclay & Brophy 2004;Barclay & Russell-White 1993;Brophy 2007).…”

The use of predictive modelling to target Neolithic settlement and occupation activity in mainland Scotland

“…Both types were probably used as the locations of communal activities, which sometimes included deposition of large quantities of cleaned cereal grains within post-holes (Fairweather and Ralston, 1993). As midden material and domestic artefacts are absent, it is increasingly unlikely 'timber halls' were households, though organic materials would rarely survive in the acidic soils (Barclay, 1996;Bradley, 2007;Brophy, 2006Brophy, , 2007Fairweather and Ralston, 1993;Noble, 2006;Sheridan, 2007;Tipping et al, 2009). It is possible the grain could have been brought on-site by people living close by (Tipping et al, 2009).…”

“…( Barclay et al, 2002a;Brophy, 2007;Fairweather and Ralston, 1993;Kinnes, 1985;Ralston, 1982;Ralston and Reynolds, 1977;Ralston and Reynolds, 1980 Dates from the pits and the hall, including its structural timbers, or material sealed in pits or post-holes. (Jones, 2000;Murray, 2004Murray, , 2005 e e e (Buckoke, 1998(Buckoke, , 1999 Monkton, Baird Road (NS32NE 102) Southwest Pits, three of which contained Neolithic pottery, and gullies that may be the remains of badly damaged structures.…”

Neolithic Britain and Ireland: are we nearly there? - Hilary K. Murray, J. Charles Murray & Shannon M. Fraser. A tale of the unknown unknowns: a Mesolithic pit alignment and a Neolithic timber hall at Warren Field, Crathes, Aberdeenshire. xii+132 pages, 51 b&w & colour illustrations, 19 tables. 2009. Oxford: Oxbow; 978-1-84217-347-3 hardback £20. - Anna Ritchie. On the fringe of Neolithic Europe: excavation of a chambered cairn on the Holm of Papa Westray, Orkney. xx+152 pages, 49 illustrations

“…This structure is one of a growing number of large (> 20m long), rectangular structures dating to the early centuries of the fourth millennium BC and relating to the Carinated Bowl Neolithic (for whose definition see Sheridan 2007 and2010; see also Brophy 2007 for a recent review of these structures). They are mostly, but not exclusively, found in Scotland, and the Crathes example lies very close to the 'hall' at Balbridie, just across the river Dee (but seemingly not intervisible with it, as the viewshed analysis indicates: fig.…”