The Gask Ridge is the modern name given to an early series of fortifications, built by the Romans in Scotland, close to the Highland Line. Modern excavation and interpretation has been pioneered by the Roman Gask Project, with Birgitta Hoffmann and David Woolliscroft. The ridge fortifications: forts, fortlets and watchtowers were only in operation for a few years, probably fewer than ten.
Dere Street or Deere Street is a modern designation of a Roman road which ran north from Eboracum (York), crossing the Stanegate at Corbridge and continuing beyond into what is now Scotland, later at least as far as the Antonine Wall. It was the Romans' major route for communications and supplies to the north and to Scotland. Portions of its route are still followed by modern roads, including the A1(M), the B6275 road through Piercebridge, where Dere Street crosses the River Tees, and the A68 north of Corbridge in Northumberland.
Heart of Neolithic Orkney is a group of Neolithic monuments on the Mainland of the Orkney Islands, Scotland. The name was adopted by UNESCO when it proclaimed these sites as a World Heritage Site in December 1999.
Deers Den is an archaeological site at Kintore, Scotland in Aberdeenshire. The site has mesolithic remains, Iron Age artefacts and is a known Roman Camp.
This timeline of prehistoric Scotland is a chronologically ordered list of important archaeological sites in Scotland and of major events affecting Scotland's human inhabitants and culture during the prehistoric period. The period of prehistory prior to occupation by the genus Homo is part of the geology of Scotland. Prehistory in Scotland ends with the arrival of the Romans in southern Scotland in the 1st century AD and the beginning of written records. The archaeological sites and events listed are the earliest examples or among the most notable of their type.
Scotland during the Roman Empire refers to the protohistorical period during which the Roman Empire interacted within the area of modern Scotland. Despite sporadic attempts at conquest and government between the first and fourth centuries AD, most of modern Scotland, inhabited by the Caledonians and the Maeatae, was not incorporated into the Roman Empire with Roman control over the area fluctuating.
The Antonine Wall was a turf fortification on stone foundations, built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. Built some twenty years after Hadrian's Wall to the south, and intended to supersede it, while it was garrisoned it was the northernmost frontier barrier of the Roman Empire. It spanned approximately 63 kilometres and was about 3 metres high and 5 metres wide. Lidar scans have been carried out to establish the length of the wall and the Roman distance units used. Security was bolstered by a deep ditch on the northern side. It is thought that there was a wooden palisade on top of the turf. The barrier was the second of two "great walls" created by the Romans in Great Britain in the second century AD. Its ruins are less evident than those of the better-known and longer Hadrian's Wall to the south, primarily because the turf and wood wall has largely weathered away, unlike its stone-built southern predecessor.
Cawdor (Roman Fort), located near the small village of Easter Galcantray (15 miles or 24 kilometres east of Inverness), is suspected of being one of the northernmost Roman forts in Great Britain, though this is controversial.
Rhind Lectures are a series of lectures on archaeological topics. They have been hosted by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland since 1874. The content of the lectures is usually published in journals or expanded into new works by their authors.
The architecture of Scotland in the Roman era includes all building within the modern borders of Scotland, from the arrival of the Romans in northern Britain in the first century BCE, until their departure in the fifth century CE. Ptolemy indicated that there were 19 "towns" in Caledonia, north of the Roman province of Britannia, but no clear evidence of urban settlements has been found and these were probably hillforts. There is evidence of over 1,000 such forts, most south of the Clyde-Forth line, but the majority seem to have been abandoned in the Roman period. There is also evidence of distinctive stone wheelhouses and small underground souterrains.
Hillforts in Scotland are earthworks, sometimes with wooden or stone enclosures, built on higher ground, which usually include a significant settlement, built within the modern boundaries of Scotland. They were first studied in the eighteenth century and the first serious field research was undertaken in the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century there were large numbers of archaeological investigations of specific sites, with an emphasis on establishing a chronology of the forts. Forts have been classified by type and their military and ritual functions have been debated.
David John Breeze, OBE, FSA, FRSE, HonFSAScot, Hon MIFA is a British archaeologist, teacher and scholar of Hadrian's Wall, the Antonine Wall and the Roman army. He studied under Eric Birley and is a member of the so-called "Durham School" of archaeology. He was a close friend and colleague of the late Dr Brian Dobson.
Agriculture in prehistoric Scotland includes all forms of farm production in the modern boundaries of Scotland before the beginning of the early historic era. Scotland has between a fifth and a sixth of the arable or good pastoral land of England and Wales, mostly in the south and east. Heavy rainfall encouraged the spread of acidic blanket peat bog, which with wind and salt spray, made most of the western islands treeless. Hills, mountains, quicksands and marshes made internal communication and agriculture difficult.
Burnswark Hill, to the east of the A74(M) between Ecclefechan and Lockerbie in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, is a prominent flat-topped hill, composed of basalt deposited some 300 million years ago as a local flow of lava. On this hill have been found an Iron Age hillfort enclosing some 7 hectares, Iron Age round houses within the fort, an earlier Bronze Age burial cairn, enclosures dated to the medieval period, a possible Civil War battery, and an Ordnance Survey triangulation station. Immediately adjacent to the base of the hill are two Roman camps, north and south of the fort, and a possible Roman fortlet within the South Camp.
Lindsay Allason-Jones, is a British archaeologist and museum professional specialising in Roman material culture, Hadrian's Wall, Roman Britain, and the presence and role of women in the Roman Empire. She is currently a visiting fellow at Newcastle University.
Croy Hill was a Roman fort, fortlet, and probable temporary camp on the Antonine Wall, near Croy, to the north east of the village in Scotland. Two communication platforms known as ‘expansions’ can be seen to the west of the fortlet. Alexander Park excavated the site in 1890-1891. Sir George Macdonald wrote about his excavation of the site which occurred in 1920, 1931, and 1935. At Croy Hill, the ditch in front of the rampart was not excavated by the Romans. It is likely that hard basalt and dolerite of the hill was virtually impossible to shape with Roman tools. This is the only place along the Wall where the ditch wasn't dug. There is a bath house just outside one fort. A video reconstruction of the site has been produced.
Valerie Maxfield FSA is a Roman archaeologist and emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of Exeter. She is a specialist in the archaeology of the Roman army and frontiers, and edited the Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society until December 2020.
This is a bibliography of published works on the history of Wales. It includes published books, journals, and educational and academic history-related websites; it does not include self-published works, blogs or user-edited sites. Works may cover aspects of Welsh history inclusively or exclusively.
This is a bibliography of the City of Gloucester in the south-west of England. The city lies close to the Welsh border, on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the southwest. It was founded by the Romans under Emperor Nerva as Colonia Glevum Nervensis, and was granted its first charter in 1155 by King Henry II.
