Ann MacSween

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Papers by Ann MacSween

Alternative living, alternative learning: The Grith Fyrd movement in England in the 1930s

Skara Brae

Oxbow Books, Nov 22, 2023

Artefact assemblages

Archaeopress Publishing Ltd eBooks, Nov 30, 2018

This chapter presents specialist reports on artefact assemblages. Most of the coarse pottery came... more This chapter presents specialist reports on artefact assemblages. Most of the coarse pottery came from Balelone, Baleshare and Hornish Point. It is acknowledged that many more well dated assemblages are needed to advance the pottery sequence for the West Coast Islands on a local and regional level. Lithics were mainly flint and quartz. The small size of the assemblages recovered and the types of contexts, cultural deposits and conflation deposits precludes any detailed discussion of the material. Geochemical analysis of pumice demonstrated that it can be correlated with dacitic pumice in Iceland, Ireland, Scotland and Norway. This material would have been collected either from contemporary or raised beach deposits and would have been used as an abrasive. Worked bone and antler included a noteworthy bone comb fragment from Hornish Point.

Lecture Summaries

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Nov 30, 1995

Cumbria has many close associations with lowland Scotland. For considerable periods it was part o... more Cumbria has many close associations with lowland Scotland. For considerable periods it was part of the Scottish king's patrimony, but it was seized by William II (Rufus) when he invaded in 1092. Having taken control of Cumbria, the kings of England were not likely to part with it, and the Scots' desire to recover it has played a not inconsiderable role in Carlisle's subsequent history. Other links include pastoralism, a dispersed settlement pattern, a system of lordship based upon the shire, the social hierarchy including drengs, thanes and bondmen, and the Brittonic language, spoken until the llth century. It was a Scottish king, David I, following his mentor Henry I, who laid the foundations for the subsequent development of Carlisle. Carlisle began life as Luguvalium, a name that commemorates a major Celtic deity and perhaps one that may imply an important pre-Roman interest in the area. It came to acquire the biggest concentration ef people, when considered with Stanwix, in northwestern Roman Britain. In Roman times it was not only a major military centre, but it was also the administrative and judicial focus for the area. Its heyday probably came in the second and third centuries AD, and it is likely that it was during this period that it became the Civitas Carvetiorum. There are indications that the settlement began to fragment in the late Roman period with roads and many properties becoming derelict, although there are hints in places that occupation continued into the fifth century. Documentary sources, notably references to the bloody battle of Arthuret in 573, indicate the continuing importance of the area around the Solway Firth in the post-Roman period, but archaeological evidence from Carlisle is sparse. Anglian settlement, principally the nunnery founded by the Queen of Northumbria assisted by St Cuthbert, is, however, documented by Bede and in an Anonymous Life of St Cuthbert. Excavations have located some structural features, including dendrochronologically dated timber-lined pits, traces of buildings, and the use of some Roman roads, alongside which finds of the Anglian period are distributed. They include many Northumbrian coins (stycas) as well as cross fragments, glass, metalwork and other objects, the distribution of which attests settlement along the road to the south of the former Roman fort and towards The Lanes on the eastern side of Carlisle. Archaeological evidence, obtained largely but not entirely from the Cathedral, demonstrates the occupation of Carlisle in the Anglo-Scandinavian period. There are indications that the settlement was relatively extensive and may have included as many as four churches, although the evidence is variable in quality and reliability. Nevertheless, the evidence is good enough to refute John of Worcester's claim that Carlisle lay deserted for 200 years before the arrival of the Normans in 1092. Indeed, a consideration of the documentary evidence (Gospatric's writ), in tandem with that of the archaeology, suggests that a relatively complex settlement with many of

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Early Christian metalworking on Iona: excavations under the 'infirmary' in 1990

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Nov 30, 1993

A small excavation within the 'infirmary' produced evidence for Early Christian period metalworki... more

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Meldon Bridge: a centre of the third millennium BC in Peeblesshire

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Nov 30, 2000

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Excavation of a cairn at Wind Hamars, Outnabreck Hill, Scalloway, Shetland

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Nov 30, 1992

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The Neolithic and late Iron Age Pottery from Pool, Sanday, Orkney: An archaeological and technological consideration of coarse pottery manufacture at the Neolithic and late Iron Age site of Pool, Orkney incorporating X-Ray Fluorescence, Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometric and Petrological An...