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Archaeology is continuing to reveal a complex and dramatic past before the Romans brought Scotland into the scope of recorded history. Obviously, throughout this period there was no such thing as Scotland or a national identity. The cultures tend have links across Europe or further afield, but focussing on this particular geographical area helps to find out about the origin of the remains and monuments that are still widespread, and to understand the background to the History of Scotland.

Before modern humans

Geological forces shaped the landscape that humans were to adapt to. In particular, the ice age formed the distinctive mountain landscape with U-shped glens and exposed extinct volcanoes to form exposed crags.

During the last interglacial, around 126,000 - 118,000 BC, there were times when climate in Europe was warmer than it is today, and after the Neandertals came to prominence there was another mild spell around 40,000 BC.
Neandertal sites have been found in the south of England, and it is possible that early humans made their way to Scotland, though no traces have been found.

Glaciers then scoured their way across most of Britain, and it was only after the ice retreated that Scotland again became habitable, around 9600 BC.

Hunter-gatherers

An early settlement at Cramond, near Edinburgh, has been dated to around 8500 BC. Pits and stakeholes suggest a hunter-gatherer encampment, and microlith stone tools long predate finds of similar style in England.

Numerous sites have been found around Scotland, particularly on the west coast and islands, dating from about 8000 BC. At a rock shelter and shell midden at Sand on Skye excavations have shown that around 6000 BC it was occupied by highly mobile people who used boats and had tools of bone, stone and antler.

Farmers and monument builders

Neolithic farming brought permanent settlements, and the wonderfully well preserved stone house at Knap of Howar on Papa Westray dated from 3500 BC predates by half a century the village of similar houses at Skara Brae on the Mainland of the Orkney Islands. Evindence from middens shows that the inhabitants were keeping cattle, sheep and pigs, farming oats and wheat and gatering shellfish as well as fishing for species which have to be line caught using boats.

These farming people introduced cairn tombs from around 3500 BC, and from about 3000 BC the many standing stones and circles such as Callanish on Lewis. These form part of the Europe wide Megalithic culture which also produced Stonehenge in Wiltshire, and are now interpreted as showing sophisticated use of astronomical observations.
At Cairnpapple, West Lothian evidence has been found that as early as 3000 BC offerings being left on the sacred hilltop included objects imported from Cumbria and Wales showing that there was already a link with these areas.

Bronze age and Iron age

The cairns and Megalithic monuments continued into the Bronze age, and hillforts were introduced, such as Eildon Hill near Melrose in the Scottish Borders which goes back to around 1000 BC and which accommodated several hundred houses on a fortified hilltop.

Brythonic Celtic culture and language spread into the Scotland at some time after the 8th century BC, possibly through cultural contact rather than mass invasion, and systems of kingdoms developed.

From around 700 BC the Iron age brought numerous hillforts, brochs and fortified settlements which support the image of quarrelsome tribes and petty kingdoms later recorded by the Romans, though evidence that at times occupants neglected the defences might suggest that symbolic power was as significant as warfare.

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