The Prehistoric Peoples of Scotland by Stuart Piggott

Author:Stuart Piggott [Piggott, Stuart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780758145383
Google: 17RqPwAACAAJ
Publisher: Textbook Publishers
Published: 2003-01-15T05:58:24+00:00

Fig. 12. Distribution of Food Vessels in Scotland (By Mr. D. Simpson).

The natural circumstances of geology render the distribution of natural copper, tin, and gold deposits in the British Isles beyond the range of the territories initially colonized by the Beaker immigrants. Tin is found in Cornwall alone; copper and gold are notably abundant in Ireland, but also occur in Wales, north-west England, and Scotland. So far as early metallurgy in Scotland was concerned, copper and gold could be obtained from local sources; tin as elsewhere involved trade either with south-west England or with the Continent. But when one looks at the distribution, in Scotland itself, of the metal sources in relation to the distribution-pattern of the earliest copper and bronze objects, and of both in relation to the areas of Beaker settlement, one sees curious disparities.2

The main copper and gold deposits lie south of a line from the Firth of Lome to the mouth of the Tay, particularly in south-west Scotland. Copper and bronze objects of the earliest phase of the British Bronze Age, and of types discussed below, are sporadic north of the Great Glen, have their most marked concentration in north-east Scotland along the Moray Firth; there is a fair scatter southwards from here along the coastal plain to the Firth of Forth and the eastern Border counties, and again in Galloway. The Nairn-Moray-Banff concentration is very remarkable: north of a line drawn from Inverness to Aberdeen there are not only some forty-five single finds and five hoards of axe-blades, of which those analysed have proved to be bronze, but nine stone open moulds for casting axe-blades, rings, and ingots.3 Such a concentration of moulds is unique in the British Isles, rivalled only by the five found in north-east Ireland, and the only known local copper source to which the Moray Firth evidence of metallurgy could be related is that at Bona on Loch Ness. It seems inevitable that copper and ores or ingots must have been imported into the region from a distance, presumably along the Great Glen route. The further point in connexion with this north-east Scottish concentration is that it does not coincide with that of Beakers, the main weight of which lies south-east of the area in question, particularly in the valleys of the Don and the Dee. And in general, the distribution of Beakers in Scotland is complementary to, rather than coincident with, the natural sources of copper and gold. In considering the source of tin it must be remembered that the coasting journey from the Moray Firth to the mouth of the Rhine—some 500 miles—is less than that down the Great Glen, and by the western sea routes to Cornwall, so continental sources cannot be ruled out.

Furthermore, when one tries to correlate the earliest metal industry of north Britain with the burials accompanied by Beakers or Food Vessels, one finds singularly little evidence of direct connexion. In two instances (Liniathen, Angus, and Glenforsa, Mull) Short-Necked Beakers were associated with copper or

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