3. SCOTLAND ----------- EXTENT Great Britain, the island, north of Hadrian's Wall, and the nearby islands. SOURCES Tolerably frequent notices in LATIN literature beginning c AD 100. Local Latin records begin in 6th century AD, local OLD ENGLISH ones soon after. There are also lots of IRISH and even some PICTISH and WELSH records of similar age. . Alan Orr Anderson. Stamford, Lincolnshire: Paul Watkins, 1990. An update (done by Marjorie Anderson) of a 1922 edition. Mostly sources in translation, but begins with a detailed bibliographical supplement. In two volumes, of which only the first covers ancient history. There appears to be neither a comprehensive collection nor a comprehensive guide to inscriptions. The historiography of early Scotland appears normally not to be meant for external public consumption, even though nearly all of it is in English. Most works go out of their way to be obscure (largely by assuming detailed knowledge of local geography; many works make more sense understood as tour guides). And controversy is pervasive, despite the relatively rich sources; introductory discussions are often organised around controversies within the field (especially The Problem Of The Picts) to the complete exclusion of narrative or explanation. I cannot recommend Ross (below) too highly as an alternative. I should note that the archaeological works mentioned below are also readable (given their different standard archaeological jargons). PERIODISATION AND TERMS Late prehistory, as in ENGLAND, was the "Iron Age" and (presumptively) Celtic. From AD 79 to sometime before AD 383 (perhaps ending as early as AD 230), the south was sometimes ruled and often influenced by ROME, though this influence appears to have had little lasting effect. When so ruled, the area belonged to the province Britannia, or if at all after the province was split, the part called Britannia Inferior or Britannia Secunda. In the 3rd century AD "Picti" started appearing in sources, and in the 4th, they started fairly often raiding England. By the 6th century AD, Picts (of Fortriu, Circenn, Fotla or Atholl) dominated the north, Britons (of Strathclyde, Gododdin, RHEGED) the south, with a few Irish (of DALRIADA) between; the area had been mostly converted by saints including Ninian and Columba. In the late 6th and early 7th centuries AD, Angles (of Bernicia, later NORTHUMBRIA) conquered much of the south. INTRODUCTORY The following web site presents fairly mainstream views with relatively little hint that controversies rage around them. . Robert MaCorkill Gunn. A somewhat pugnaciously nationalist version. Note that this site's contents are cloned in multiple places, and the rest all used badly constructed frames. In particular stay away from anything with "scotsweb" in the URL. This address gives you the same stuff without messing up your browser: http://members.aol.com/Skyelander/ For a much more substantial source of information see: * . Stewart Ross. Moffat, Scotland: Lochar Publishing, 1991. This is a relatively full introduction, covering all of prehistory and up to the 9th century AD. It's extremely readable, with lots of illustrations. Though there's a bibliography, there's no guidance to using it; Ross is sometimes careless (e.g. misspelling Roman emperors' names); but the book so admirably balances narrative, explanation, and information about the controversies, that its relatively unknown status baffles me. RESEARCH Prehistory generally: You have a choice between a good standard archaeology, guiding you to sites, cultures and so forth, and a more recent set of reviews from quasi-"new archaeology" perspectives. . Graham and Anna Ritchie. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991. This is an updated (*not*, as usually cited, revised) version of the original 1981 edition (which was volume 99 of 'Ancient Peoples and Places'.) The standard work, readable and useful. * . Edited by Kevin J. Edwards and Ian B. M. Ralston. Chichester etc.: John Wiley & Sons, 1997. This is a brand-new book composed roughly half of topical chapters (on such topics as archaeobotany) and roughly half of reviews of periods. There is a chapter each on the Iron Age before Rome, the remains of Roman activity, and the period after Rome's arrival up to about AD 700. These chapters are essentially review articles (though a bit light on references) surveying scholarship of the past two decades or so. The book's entire concept is that environmental and archaeological studies should be more closely integrated; this is honoured by each of the relevant chapters on periods; the book thus amounts to a banner for the New Archaeology in Scotland. Strictly speaking, this book may well have been reviewed by now, but I haven't looked given the difficulties I'd face in doing so. Early history: . Alfred P. Smyth. Volume 1 of 'The New History of Scotland', Jenny Wormald, editor. London etc.: Edward Arnold, 1984. The standard work, and the most recent full treatment, this book has more than its share of controversy and poor organisation. But it's redeemed by a wonderfully helpful evaluative bibliography. Update that with the (much more selective) references from , Lloyd and Jenny Laing, Stroud, Gloucestershire and Dover, New Hampshire: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1993 (a book too narrow in topic for me to have evaluated for this document). NOTE This entry in the FAQ contains references to Web sites. Please note that the entire FAQ, which is huge and difficult to do, is on an *extremely* slow update schedule. While I may correct changed addresses and the like when notified of them, and will certainly do so when/if those addresses' owners ask me to, I will *not* be actively checking links, and *will* have other things on my plate. Created July 27, 1997. Last updated February 15, 2001. Next due for full update July 27, 2002. The February 2001 update was limited to removing a broken link, but I am not aware of any new books I should have noted; I haven't looked for new websites. Reviewed by old-irish-list. Thanks to Rod McDonald, Rachel Cailliach and Richard Marsh for suggestions. URL: [An FTP location would be good to have.]