All change around 2500/2400 BC? The end of the ‘Scottish Neolithic’, and the future of Scottish Neolithic studies

Sheridan, J A

All change around 2500/2400 BC? The end of the ‘Scottish Neolithic’, and the future of Scottish Neolithic studies

Resource type

Lecture

Creator (person)

Sheridan, J A

Date published

December 18, 2020

Abstract

The ‘boom’ period in Late Neolithic Orkney seems to have come to a fairly dramatic end, although the timing and tempo of this collapse continue to be debated. From the 25th century BC, signs of new people, new objects and new practices appeared in parts of Scotland from the Continent, and thanks to isotopic and DNA analysis we can say quite a lot about these so-called ‘Beaker people’. But was their appearance linked to the collapse in the Late Neolithic Orcadian social order? And what was happening elsewhere in Scotland? This lecture will explore the complexities of developments between c. 3000-2400 BC. It will also highlight the many questions that remain to be answered about this period, and about the rest of the Neolithic, and will suggest where future research needs to be concentrated. Followed by a Question & Answer session and a brief celebration of 240 years since the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland was formally founded at the Earl of Buchan’s house on the 18th December 1780 with the Earl of Bute elected as the first President.