The Border of Farming and the Cultural Markers - Nordlige Verdener

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process of competitive aggrandisement
in monument building, as seen in the
massive horned cairns of both these regions
(e.g. at Camster Long, Caithness:
Davidson & Henshall 1991: plate 21; cf.
Davidson & Henshall 1989: fig. 31 for
their distribution).
Developments in Shetland c. 3600-
3300 BC: Early to Middle Neolithic
In the same way that much remains to
be discovered about the initial Neolithisation
of Shetland, so the narrative for
succeeding periods is patchy, and certain
misconceptions need to be dispelled.
Positive evidence for activity between c.
3600 and c. 3300 BC has been obtained
at West Voe and on Shurton Hill; additional
evidence, from Modesty, will be
discussed below. At West Voe, the
aforementioned episode of activity featuring
the deposition of pottery and associated
bone and limpet shells seems
to have been followed by an episode of
sand deposition, probably representing
a storm c. 3600–3500 BC (Melton 2009,
188). Thereafter, a cow tooth and some
cockle shells were deposited, one of the
latter being radiocarbon dated (allowing
for the marine effect) to c. 3500–3300
cal BC (OxA-14161: Melton 2009: 188).
Possibly around the same time, a pit was
dug, with a cockle shell from that pit
producing a date of c. 3500–3100 cal BC
(OxA-14180: ibid.); and then a stone wall
was constructed immediately above
that pit. Further north, on the Hill of
Shurton near Lerwick, organic material
– presumably charcoal – preserved in
sediment immediately underlying a long,
sub-peat stone wall produced a radiocarbon
date of 4740±50 BP (3640–3370 cal
BC, UB-2122: Whittington 1978. Note that
the precise nature of the dated sample
is not specified in the publication). Whittington
argued that the concentration of
charcoal at this depth could have related
to moor-burning to maintain pasture, and
this is indeed a possibility; he also noted
that the pollen record revealed that the
landscape around the time when the
wall was built was a heathland, virtually
free of trees. Another palynological study
undertaken during the 1970s, at Murraster,
claimed a mid-4 th millennium date
for the establishment of a continuous
record for ribwort plantain (Plantago
lanceolata), indicating an open environment
and possibly farming activity
(Jóhansen 1976; 1985).
A new and very important piece of evidence
for activity that may belong within
the third quarter of the 4 th millennium
BC has just been obtained, for the Farming
on the Edge Project. This is the radiocarbon
date of 4580±35 BP (3500–3110
cal BC, SUERC-37997), obtained from
charcoal of short-lived Maloideae species
associated with a deposit of nine felsite
axeheads and 13 polished Shetland