These remotest shores were now circumnavigated for the first time by a Roman fleet… …
At the same time it discovered and subjugated the Orkney Islands…
Tacitus cal. AD 98.
By Associate Professor Scott Timpany
On May 13, members of the UHI Archaeology Institute, together with colleagues from the National Museum of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh, hosted the Roads to the North one-day conference held at the Historic Environment Scotland (HES) Engine Shed.
The Stirling conference and workshop event brought together Iron Age and Roman researchers to explore the wider context of Roman and Roman inspired materials recovered from Iron Age sites in the north of Scotland (here including the areas of Sutherland, Caithness and the Northern Isles).
This region has received relatively little attention in terms of how “native” Iron Age communities interacted with and were influenced by Roman culture, including through conflict; with this area often perceived as being on the periphery of the Roman world.
Yet the presence of these materials raises important questions around the ways that this intercultural interaction occurred.
An increasing number of Roman-derived materials are being recovered from Iron Age sites in Northern Scotland (e.g. pottery, glass, coinage, and metalwork), while less obvious connections may also have existed (e.g. trade in cereal grains and fauna, together with use of certain alloys).
Martin Carruthers on The Cairns, South Ronaldsay, Orkney. (📷 Scott Timpany)
To explore these themes the conference began with a series of talks from guest speakers and the UHI Archaeology Institute’s own Martin Carruthers, Dr Julia Cussans and Dr Simon Clarke. The talks covered a number of themes with Martin discussing changes in architectural forms of structures in the Middle Iron Age at The Cairns site in South Ronaldsay together with the significance of Roman objects and objects made from re-used Roman materials, including a number of beautiful glass beads.
Fraser Hunter and Tanja Romankiewicz. (📷 Scott Timpany)
Fraser Hunter (National Museum of Scotland) then spoke about recent Roman finds that have been discovered across Scotland with a focus on the north of Scotland including glass, pottery and new research on Roman silver. Dr Tanja Romankiewicz (University of Edinburgh) provided an update on excavations at Newstead, which have revealed Iron Age settlements at the edge of the Roman Fort, and was able to tell the audience about new dates received for the site hot off the press.
Dr Antony Lee (Treasure Trove) rounded off the first session of talks with an overview of the activities of Treasure Trove, together with showing a range of Roman objects that had been discovered over recent years, including in the north of Scotland and included coins, brooches, and belt buckles.
Dr Anthony Lee. (📷 Scott Timpany)
Following a coffee break a second round of talks began with Dr Julia Cussans discussing the intriguing evidence of Roman butchery marks observed on a cattle bone from the Iron Age site of Scatness in Shetland. From fauna to flora as Dr Sam Jones (University of Aberdeen) talking about landscape change associated with the Roman period from Loch Clunie, Perthshire. Sam’s research involved studying pollen grains trapped in the loch sediments to reconstruct the environment through time and showed a decline in farming activities during the Late Roman period in this area of Scotland.
Dr Julia Cussans, Mike Bishop and Dr Simon Clarke. (📷 Scott Timpany)
Mike Bishop (Writer, Publisher, & Archaeologist) gave the only talk of the day to focus on roads by providing an overview of Margary 9, which ran along the east coast of Scotland. Mike discussed the construction of roads, their varying uses, the settlements that formed around them, as well as how these roads outlasted the Romans.
The final talk of the morning was delivered by Dr Simon Clarke, who returned us to Newstead, but this time to consider how the inhabitants of Trimontium Roman Fort interacted with their neighbours and may have been a focus of trade with the creation of market areas around the fort.
Simon also considered how Iron Age communities and Roman communities economies may have related to each other.
Following a well-earned lunch the afternoon kicked off with a show-and-tell session in the Seminar Room of the Engine Shed. Dr Antony Lee and Martin Carruthers both brought with them materials either Roman in origin or inspired by Roman culture that they had discussed in their talks, providing a rare opportunity for people to handle objects that had appeared earlier on-screen.
Together with the material culture of the Romans, Dr Julia Cussans had the cattle bone with Roman butchery marks on display for people to view, while Dr Scott Timpany (UHI) also brought some charred cereal grain of spelt wheat to look at under the microscope from the Iron Age site of Culduthel that may represent trade with the Romans.
The afternoon show-and-tell session. (📷 Julia Cussans)
The afternoon and conference was completed by a roundtable session chaired by Dr Helen Spencer (Scottish Archaeological Research Framework, ScARF) who started the discussion with an overview of progress made by ScARF (see The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework | The go-to research resource for Scottish Archaeology) and the research questions related to Roman Scotland from the various national and regional panel reports.
A lively discussion followed that covered themes including Dating, Chronology and Settlements, Society and Identity, Travel Communication and Trade, as well as Land Use and Environment.
Overall, the Roads to the North conference was enjoyed by around 50 attendees, who included a mix of academics, interested parties and a number of our own UHI Archaeology Students.
The programme team would like to thank all the speakers who gave such excellent talks, Helen for doing such an amazing job of chairing the roundtable session, Antony for bringing materials to the show and tell session and the Engine Shed for hosting the event.
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