stirling-1963-vol-1/05_067

Transcription

INTRODUCTION : THE EARLY IRON AGE
intervening country, between the River Beauly and the Sidlaw Hills, might be accounted for
by supposing that its inhabitants were at this time hostile to the broch-builders and strong
enough to keep them out, while those of the Tay-Forth-Tweed area either agreed to their
entry or were powerless to prevent it. The first of these alternatives is perhaps the more
probable, as the small number of the brochs is at variance with the idea of force. On the other
hand, during the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. reports must have spread quickly to the most
remote parts of Britain that spoil was to be had in the civilised Roman province, and such
reports might well have led to raids presaging the larger and more frequent movements of
later years. On this showing the brochs might represent either the work of men coming south
for this purpose, but deciding to stay and settle down before reaching their goal rather than
to proceed towards uncertain riches and risks, or else of raiders returning with or without
spoil and deciding to establish themselves in more fertile and rewarding places than those from
which they originally came.
The relations of these people with the Romans is also largely a matter of conjecture. On
general grounds it seems likely that the infiltration of the broch-builders into the Tay-Forth-
Tweed area occurred at a time when the Romans were not in control of the Lowlands,
especially in view of the fact that the Tor Wood broch stands in a commanding position only
a stone's throw from the main Roman road to the north. If this is so, then the brochs in question
could in theory have been erected prior to the Roman invasion of Scotland in A.D. 79, or during
the forty years (c. A.D. 100-140) that elapsed between the Flavian and Antonine occupations,
or at the end of the 2nd century when Clodius Albinus withdrew the Roman garrisons from
Britain in an unsuccessful attempt to win the Imperial throne. The discovery of considerable
quantities of Roman pottery at Torwoodlee broch, ¹ apparently looted from the nearby fort
at Newstead during its temporary abandonment by Roman forces, seems to rule out the
first of these choices, while the last would be at variance with the fact that in the north
of Scotland brochs were already obsolete by the late 2nd and 3rd centuries. Thus a date
between A.D. 100 and 140 seems most likely for the construction of the Tay-Forth-Tweed
brochs.
The following Iron Age monuments are plotted on the distribution map (Fig. 4):

Fort. Dumyat (No. 68)
Fort, Abbey Craig (No. 69)
Fort, Gillies Hill (No. 70)
Fort, Sauchie Craig (No. 71)
Fort, Cowie (No. 72)
Fort, Langlands (No. 73)
Fort, Braes (No. 74)
Fort, Myot Hill (No. 75)
Fort, Coneypark (No. 76)
Fort, Meikle Reive (No. 78)
Fort, Craigmaddie (No. 79)
Fort, site, Mote Hill, Stirling (No. 80)
Fort, site, Livilands (No. 81)
Fort, site, Camelon (No. 82)
Dun, Baston Burn (No. 84)
Dun, Touch Muir (No. 85)
Dun, Castlehill Wood (No. 86)
Dun, Wester Craigend (No. 87)
Dun, Wallstale (No. 88)
Dun, Craigton (No. 89)
Dun, Brokencastle (No. 90)
Dun, site, Castlehill 1 (No.91)
Dun, site, Castlehill 2 (No. 92)
Dun, approximate site, Auchincloch (No. 93)

1 P.S.A.S.. lxxxv (1950-1), 92 ff.

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