peeblesshire-1967-vol-1/03_063

Transcription

INTRODUCTION: THE EARLY IRON AGE

shire) gives reason to believe that it may be somewhat earlier in date than most of the Early
Iron Age pottery found in southern Scotland and northern England. If this is so, then the
unenclosed platform settlements represent the earliest type of dwelling-site that has hitherto
been identified in the region, and they may be comparable to certain open settlements at
Dalrulzion (Perthshire),¹ where similar pottery was obtained. The very fact that the houses are
unenclosed differentiates them from all the habitations in the area known to be of Early Iron
Age date.
In addition to these two points of similarity-the lack of any form of enclosing palisade or
wall, and the correspondence of the pottery-the houses excavated at Green Knowe and
Dalrulzion exhibit a striking resemblance in the method of construction of the wall. At
Dalrulzion, the wall consisted, at least at the base, of an inner and an outer facing of stones
separated by a hollow space about 5 ft. wide. At Green Knowe, the wall was faced on either
side with wattle screens about 2 ft. 6 in. apart. In both cases the interval between the faces
must have been filled with an ephemeral insulating material, such as heather, grass or peat.
Walls constructed on this filled-cavity principle have been found at Ness of Gruting (Shetland)²
and Knockadoon (County Limerick),³ for example, in pre-Iron Age contexts, but they do not
occur in the local Early Iron Age houses described above (pp. 21 f.), or at such Early Iron Age
sites as Staple Howe (Yorkshire)⁴ or West Harling (Norfolk).⁵
While too little is as yet known for house types to occupy a very significant place in the
elucidation of prehistoric sequences, it appears likely that the filled-cavity wall should be
assigned either to the latest