Pushing Boundaries: Crannogs outside of the island-dwelling heartland
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2015-11-26

Michael Stratigos
UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
Research on Scottish crannogs has focused on several discreet regions where the phenomenon is considered most central to the settlement patterns of those areas. This has meant that examples of crannogs outside of these regions have seen very little modern investigation. Reasons for why focus has been placed on particular loci of the crannog phenomenon will be discussed, and interpretational issues stemming from the geographical focus of the current corpus of crannog literature will be reviewed. The paper will also outline a new programme of fieldwork that has been initiated by the author in an area that has seen no modern investigation. Results of this fieldwork (both terrestrial and submerged) will be presented, and the implications
of understanding the artificial island dwelling phenomenon in Scotland in light of this work will be put forward. Work on drainage patterns suggest that crannogs may have been more numerous in this region than previously recognized. It will be argued that interpretations of crannogs should consider that they represent a near ubiquitous form of settlement in the later prehistoric, early historic and medieval periods across Scotland. On this basis the case will be made for a future research strategy for Scottish crannogs that casts a far wider geographical net, and that until such a strategy adds significant amounts of further data, functional, chronological and morphological interpretations of the crannog phenomena will remain preliminary.