Books

Books : reviews

Fraser Hunter, Ian B. M. Ralston.
Scotland in Later Prehistoric Europe.
Society of Antiquitaries of Scotland. 2015

How did Scotland relate to wider European patterns in later prehistory? This key topic is addressed by the papers in this volume, which review recent work on the Scottish later Bronze Age and Iron Age in the light of its neighbours. Authors use the explosion of recent data to investigate settlements and domestic architecture, art, craft, beliefs, and environmental change. Comparative studies from southern Scandinavia, the Low Countries, Atlantic France, Ireland and northern England provide perspectives which feed into much larger topics, such as the changing balance of Atlantic versus Continental connections, how societies responded to climate change, and how significant an issue this was. There are fresh insights into models of later prehistoric society, the nature of craft production, changing land use and settlement patterns.

The papers arise from one of a series of conferences held by the Society to review the place of Scotland in European archaeology.