Island Dwellings at 60° North: New Evidence for Crannogs in Iron Age Shetland

Abstract

Re-evaluation of recorded sites and new field survey have identified 30 island dwellings in Shetland which are argued to be part of the wider Scottish Iron Age crannog building tradition. Four were subject to field survey above and below water and found to be at least partly artificial. The morphology, distribution and chronology of Shetland's artificial islands are discussed and compared to the rest of Scotland emphasizing their parallels. The results support the recent move towards considering islet duns and brochs as crannogs. These newly identified sites in Shetland underline the ubiquity of the crannog building tradition in Scotland. Through discussion of the morphology, distribution and chronology of crannogs in Shetland and the rest of Scotland, it is argued that artificial island dwelling is a widely shared cultural practice and an underlying principle of Scottish Iron Age settlement.

Neolithic Crannogs in the Outer Hebrides (and Beyond?): Synthesis, Survey, and Dating

“…Since that time, many projects have been established (Figs 1 and 2), focusing on particular lochs or regions (eg, Loch Lomond Islands Survey, South West Crannog Survey, Caithness Crannog Survey, Orkney Crannog Survey, Perthshire Crannog Survey, Living on Water: Loch Tay's Early Iron Age Crannogs). Similarly, a sizeable number of doctoral theses relating to crannogs have been undertaken (eg, Dixon 1984;Crone 1988;Miller 1997;Holley 1998;Hale 2000;Cavers 2005;2010;Lenfert 2012;2013;Fonville 2015;Stratigos 2017). This very substantial body of work has been hugely important in terms of advancing our understanding of crannog sites.…”

“…SUMMARY OF SITES WITHIN OUR ARCHAEOLOGICAL PREHISTORIC SOCIETY information about all relevant sites, those previously classified as crannogs, artificial islands, island dwellings, fortified islands, causeways, duns, and brochs (the latter two filtered to include only those built on islands) were included in our search. This primary database was then cross-referenced with those generated through other relevant research projects(eg, Holley 2000;Cavers 2010;Lenfert 2012;Stratigos 2021); any additional information that could be extracted was recorded, and new sites added and/or flagged for further investigation. The database recorded each island's location, setting, structural materials, recovered artefacts and materials, radiocarbon or dendrochronological dates, previous research…”

New integrated molecular approaches for investigating lake settlements in north-western Europe

“…Estimates of the number of crannogs in Scotland and Ireland vary for several reasons, including definitional uncertainties and the uneven distribution and coverage of crannog surveys. The latter include the Republic of Ireland, south-west and north-east Scotland and the Northern Isles (Morrison 1985; Farrell et al 1989; Stratigos & Noble 2018; Cavers & Henderson 2002; Henderson et al 2003, 2021; Stratigos 2021). The overall distribution of crannogs is relatively even across both countries, with some probably genuine gaps, such as in south-west Ireland and south-east Scotland, and hotspots, such as in the northern midlands of Ireland (Figure 1).…”