Scotland in Early Medieval Europe

This edited volume explores how (what is today) Scotland can be compared with, contrasted to, or was connected with other parts of Early Medieval Europe. Far from a ‘dark age’, Early Medieval Scotland (AD 300–900) was a crucible of different languages and cultures, the world of the Picts, Scots, Britons and Anglo-Saxons. Though long regarded as somehow peripheral to continental Europe, people in Early Medieval Scotland had mastered complex technologies and were part of sophisticated intellectual networks.This cross-disciplinary volume includes contributions focussing on archaeology, artefacts, art-history and history, and considers themes that connect Scotland with key processes and phenomena happening elsewhere in Europe. Topics explored include the transition from Iron Age to Early Medieval societies and the development of secular power centres, the Early Medieval intervention in prehistoric landscapes, and the management of resources necessary to build kingdoms.

Table of Contents

Alice Blackwell: IntroductionEwan Campbell: Peripheral vision: Scotland in Early Medieval EuropeSally M Foster: ‘A bright crowd of chancels’: whither early church archaeology in Scotland?Meggen Gondek & Gordon Noble: The 5–6th century Early Medieval Pictish power centre at Rhynie, north-east Scotland, and its European contextAlice Blackwell & Martin Goldberg: Norrie’s Law, Gaulcross and beyond: widening the context of hacksilver hoarding in ScotlandEwan Campbell, Stephen Driscoll, Meggen Gondek & Adrian Maldonado: An Early Medieval and prehistoric nexus: the Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot projectMartin Carver: Political transition at Portmahomack: the European contextAdrian Maldonado: Early Medieval burial in European context: log coffins in ScotlandMartin Goldberg: Pictish adventus: Christian iconography and the ideology of lordshipAlasdair Ross: Medieval European land assessment, Fortriu, and the dabhachNicholas Evans: Ideas of origins and ethnicity in Early Medieval Scotland