 Thank you very much for inviting me to speak today. After all, the beautiful images this morning of southern climes were off to the far north of Scotland and further back in time. So today we're going to be focusing on the archaeology of Shetland. Shetland is a northernmost archipelago in the British Isles located 80 kilometres northeast of Orkney and 320 kilometres west of Norway. Tooodd rym ni viio bywch y gyffredinol defineiddi posiwn am y sif Barnysg Merhyn. Ond y Chynw plate o argynwyr을 countless开始 bryd yn cael gwith ehon diwethaf, a plefwch gennaen gw reviewing miliyndu ymlaen yn yn defnydd Poedigh gyda'r lot yn ddd тел щadaeth i wahreadadau gweld y Type Part較 Me mitigate o unig arnolygu. Croed o antyfu Plasionol agod Ian dim barod y llyn yha i gweld intelysau gan sylسion ys ferwar, peflygeden st erindwjang, y blaenau, y llyn, y cliynau cynnig, ar gyfer rydych, Mae llwyddiadun yma yn gweithio, i gweithio'r llwyddiadu a'r bronzag a bywch ar gyfer y llwyddiad yn gyllidol i Llankeith Pethau a'r gweithio'r ddechrau'r cyfnodau yn ymwynghau, a'r cyfnodau ar gyfer y Llankeith Pethau yn gyfnod iawn mwyaf. Sut y cerddured iddyn nhw wedi'u prinsigol ar gyfer cerddur yn cyfnodol a'r llwyddiadu ddechrau'r cyfnodau a'r cyfnodau ar gyfer cyfnodau yn un pethu ymlaen. A mynd i ddechrau yn cyfnodd cyflogion ymhyfu. Mae'r cyfnodd maen nhw wedi mi gael â'r lleifau amgylcheddon ac yn cael gweld cyflogion, Mae'r hyn sylfa mewn ystyried meddwl yma yn ymrydiau wyfbwyllian o gwahanol fewn y cyfnodd cydweithio fod yn mergych. Felly mae hefyd o gerraeth, bydderwch a好吧nol wrth oed yn cydweithio gyflym Cellent, a bod y rhai roedd y rhai ar y sgoredau. The sites of the leaf to date from the Neolithic and Bronze Asia based on the artifact assemblages, the radio carbon dates and the redating of earlier excavations. A lot sites in Shetland were excavated by Charles Calder in the 1950s and the 1960s before the advent of a large-spread radio carbon dating. Hovebridge structures in Shetland are notoriously difficult to date due to the longevity of the architectural styles cynnig o bobl architectrall, roedd o'n llwydau o bobl oedganfodd i gyd, a hynny, drwy'r lleionau a lleionau ar y maen nhw yng nghymru. Ond y pethau i ddweud bydddau ambyrnu peat yw fuel yn Shetland, o gyntaf y Llywodraeth a'r llwyddiad o fray ar gyfer deserio. Yn gyfans i ddim yn ei ffwng i ddweud? Penthu i gennych ar gyfer deserio holl o fryd hafrsio, ac na'r argyft i ddweud o'r methu sy'n gweithfyrdd. amdanoedd yn y nifer o ddysgu a'r ddeud yn ymdolfodol. Yn amddangos, mae'n gwybod cyfath o'r ddau cyfathor o'r ddau cyfathor o'r ddau cyfathor o'r ddau o'r ddau fel hyn yn ymwyllgor, yn y dyfodol, o'r bronzau, o'r ddau'r ddau o'r ddau, o'r prifsarig. Mae'n cyfathor o'r ddau o'r ddau o'r ddau o'r prifsarig o'r ddau o'r gwaith o'r ddau o'r ddau o'r ddau. The investigation of the prehistoric landscapes on the West mainland involved using high-resolution aerial photographs to map a 160 km2 area of the West mainland. Once this was filtered to remove the historic and modern land use, a busy prehistoric landscape began to emerge with the variety of settlement forms, prehistoric structures, boreal cakes, and burnt mounds. Mae'n ddiwylo Soldannau. Felly, yn ysgrifianedd gyrraedd – mae'n gwybod i credu ar gyhoeddiad gwahaniaethau'n ddegor a'r ffiyliadau'n dda. Wyrstau'n ddim yn y blaenau ac mae'n ddegoroddiad y gallu darllen amferio'n ddegor a'u ddegoroddiad ar gyhoeddu awdol addyn. Mae'n ddegoroddiad pwysig yn dealtio'r bod yn oed i'r meddal gan ysgrifiaeth. Felly mae'n gydig i gynhau'n edud o'ch bod llunio'n ddegoroddiad. Modern settlement in Shetland is located in the coastal areas, so again, we're losing a portion of this settlement record due to later developments. So the analysis of these individual sites allows for an exploration of subsistence, settlement and resource use in the past. One of the most distinctive forms of settlement surveyed in the area are these home-thed inclusions, which are remarkably consistent in form being a similar sign of the Duminayne and the Schroedtom. yn fformonau yn bwysig iawn. Yn rhaglau GIS yn gweld o'r ffordd o gwyllt cyfnwys, mae'n gwyfyrdd o gwyfyrdd llwyaf o'r pwysig iawn yn ffordd o'r bwysig iawn. Mae'r awr yn y cyfnod o'r bwysig iawn yn gwyfyrdd o'r bwysig iawn, a'u ddweud i gydwyl iawn i ymdodol, mewn gwirionedd ymarfer y byddwyd ac yn ei wneud, a'r llwyddon ychydig wnaeth ymwiel beth yw'r llwy flyn amwiel yma, mai'r clwb thatau yn chi. Yg ydi'r cynllun hyn o'r llwy o fod folos a'r llwyddon i'n defnyddio'r llwyddon a'r llwyddon i'r wels ychydig. Mae mae'n fynd o'r meddorol yn rhaglenol yn y cwysig. Mae'n meddwl mae'n mynd i lef, rydych chi'n parol, a'n mynd i gweld yn llwyddon i ychydig o'u peth. Ychydig yn fwy o gwybod, gallwn i'r cyflwytoedd gyda'i cyflwytoedd, ac mae'r cyflwytoedd wedi'u cyflwytoedd yn achos am ffawr. Felly, mae'r cyflwytoedd arall yn bahog, ac mae'r cyflwytoedd yr ymddiad i'r profiad o ffioilio. Mae'r cyflwytoedd yn olem o gefnogaeth yn ffioedd ar y fath o'r fath yn ddynion, ac mae nid o gymmydd cyflwytoedd sy'n barhoo a'r tanfod i'r hurwch gwaith arall of seedlings in these areas protected from the climate and the wind conditions in Shetland by these drystone boundaries that enclose them. So, within this host set of enclosures may have represented fixed and defined spaces within a landscape used more widely to graze, grow and gather. Now, here the limitations of our broad understanding of chronology come into play. There are arguments that these sites in a unilinear style of progression represent simpler, earlier initial phase of settlement in these contexts. However, there is excavated evidence to suggest that they're contemporary with these larger field systems, perhaps representing complementary or competing settlement forms. And finally, it's worth acknowledging that these types of sites may not be chronologically distinct. As I said before, this oval house form continues all the way into the Iron Age and a simple house with a singular enclosure may have been a useful settlement form throughout prehistory. And it's important to remember that the functional societal role of enclosure within these contexts may have been very different. And this is some examples of the types of sites that we're looking at. They're quite similar in ephemeral, this one in the central that are relayed by later activity. You get a sense of their landscape setting at the base of slopes in the sort of valleys. Now, the relationship between these homestead enclosures and the larger field systems are unclear, but they do seem to represent distinct forms. Now, the previously broad classification of multiple field systems allows for numerous sites to be defined as such. However, the survey really showed that only a small number are closely comparable to what is defined as the archetypal site at Scord of Brewster. So Scord of Brewster was excavated in the 1970s by Alistair Whittle, and it remains the only extensively excavated sort of a regular field system in Shetland. And it produced a large speed of radar carbon dates, which are though are not unproblematic, do suggest significant occupation in the Neolithic and into the Bronze Age. The exploration of the landscape identified the central field system and further boundaries on the surrounding hillsides, which were interpreted to have been laid out from early on in the life of the settlement, forming an infield and outfield type system. So, as stated, the limited number of sites are closely comparable. With the GIS analysis of these, indicating a key preference in contrast to the Huntshead enclosures for sloping ground on hillsides with south to southeasterly aspects, with the fields themselves extending along the contours usually located halfway up the slope. Now, there is evidence for cultivation of the white or activity in the wider area in the form of these small clearance cairns, which usually occur below the settlement on the lower slopes, and these large linear boundaries which cross the landscape seeming to extend from these field systems. Now, there are practical reasons for constructing your field systems on slopes. Being halfway up these slopes with south facing aspects may have been a means to maximise sunlight and extend the growing season in Shetland, where we're dealing with northern latitudes as we move into autumn and winter, daylight hours are significantly reduced, so maximising sunlight may have been an important factor in the cultivation of your crops. The paleo-environmental work suggests that the principal crop being grown in Shetland is barley, which has quite a short growing period, but it's quite resilient to a number of conditions. Irrigation may have also played an important factor in Shetland. Hydrological modelling and mapping of the modern drainage ditches and the intensity in which you need to dig these ditches on the flat ground to maintain sort of dry ground indicate that perhaps control of water movement across these sites was important and would indicate why you wouldn't preferentially pick the low ground to build these types of field systems. At school degrees to the fields themselves seems to have been constructed during a phase and increased soil erosion, so they may have acted as a means to control soil movement across your site. Now the cultivation of the wider area also allows us to explore themes that perhaps the fields of differing sizes within these field systems may have been used for specific purposes, such as the planting of seedlings, which then would have been planted out into the wider area, or again these seasonally specific activities such as lambing or calving, which can be quite dangerous of time for the animals involved and you want to make sure that you are maximising and looking after your flock. Now again with homestead enclosures we can begin to think a bit more broadly about their purpose and this comes back to the themes discussed in the initial presentation. These sites are believed to date from the Neolithic and Bronze Age, which is a period of change across Europe, and they may have acted as a means to negotiate tenure access and ownership in a changing world. Their position halfway up the hillside increases their visibility across the landscape. The scale of these sites in a number of ways could be considered monumental and this is interesting when considering in Shetland we don't have any ritual monumental structures such as the big stone circles that you would see from a similar time period in Orkney. The monumental structures we do have were excavated in the 50s and defined as the Neolithic temples, but really they're probably best conceived of as large gathering halls and what to me this may indicate is that actually this display of production may have played an important societal role in Neolithic and Bronze Age Shetland. Now the survey revealed numerous other settlement forms ranging from unenclosed houses, hilltop enclosures and far more extensive sites with possibilities of multiple phases of development and again chronology is an issue in relating how these sites relate to one another as what we may be looking at is sites with specific functions, hierarchy of settlement or again these chronologically distinct settlements that may have had changing meanings through time. Now the interpretation of a number of these sites was influenced by the excavations in July 2016 and 2017 of this site at Tronysian which is located between the Myer of Tronysian and the Lop of Brunatua in this kind of rise within this valley that gives it quite some commanding views across the surrounding area and down to the coast. The excavation of the prehistoric house in the centre revealed a structure that was constructed in the Bronze Age with a significant phase of remodeling in the mid-first millennium AD what we in Scotland returned the Pictish period. Excavations across the field walls and the secondary structure revealed that these additional fields off the main enclosure were actually also later additions pointing at the development of this site through time and importantly the wider survey revealed that morphologically this site is not distinct there are other examples that look very similar across the surveyed area and this provides the opportunity to reconsider the much later reuse of these earlier prehistoric sites and the possibility that sites previously thought of as Neolithic Bronze Age actually relate to a much later period of land use. So its main influence has been reinterpreting some of these more extensive sites which show evidence for several phases of development but perhaps do share some similarities with that site at Scord of Brewster with irregular fields up on the hillside suggesting that some aspects may originate in the same time period. Now this site here at Pineholland provides a really nice example of some of these complexities where we have field walls overlying earlier structures and you can see shaded in grey coming through the middle here. We have clusters of features which is actually quite unusual within the Neolithic Bronze Age landscapes of Shetland what we normally have are singular isolated houses spread out through the field system and then we also have quite unique features such as this mound-like structure with quite substantial banks surrounding it which overlie clearance canes so we can clearly see that we have possibly multiple phases of development at this site and this has been analysed previously but the intensity of occupation has always been argued to have been the result of earlier settlement. This site is so intensively occupied because it is the result of earlier Neolithic initial occupation however I would argue that given the reconsiderations of our excavations that actually we should be considering the much later reuse of this site and that interaction in the landscape between how these later periods engage with reuse and remodel these earlier settlements within their own settlement forms it's interesting to note that these more extensive sites the boundaries tend to extend onto the lower ground down to the coast areas which comparative settlement elsewhere is more highly occupied in these later periods suggesting that these locations may have been more favourable. Now the identification of these elements and the hypothesis of relator reuse needs to be explored further through excavation but do provide some exciting avenues for rethinking some of these landscapes in Shetland. So to conclude at first glance the landscapes in Shetland appear to conform to this image of Neolithic and Bronze Age life that in our minds eye is really quite easy to imagine where we have ordered settlements fields for crops and protected from the wild however this in many respects is misleading as the survey really highlighted just the sheer variety of settlement forms and with the excavations throwing up further questions about the date of some of these sites and their much later reuse. In Shetland these landscapes can perhaps no longer be seen as sort of these fossilized relics of prehistoric land use but should be understood as dynamic palimpsest landscapes that are being changed and adapted through time and this really continues right up into the modern period. This that you can see here is me in the bottom sitting within one of these field systems but the green area across the Loch of Kellister this is actually a sort of historic crofting settlement that went out of use in the early 1900s and it's interesting to note that it's located on the other side of the Loch from the prehistoric remains but what they seem to do is use elements of the prehistoric landscape to build things such as these structures called plantycrubs which are small circular drystone unroofed buildings that are used to grow kale seedlings all across Shetland and you find them on the common ground. So even up to this modern period we can see this more complex interplay between the prehistory historic and modern periods so really my final note is that the problems of dating in Shetland should really not detract from its astonishing potential to ask detailed questions about life in prehistory and I think we're only scratching the surface of its potential so far so thank you very much.