Violence, Politics and Power: Iron Age and Pictish Reinventions of a Prehistoric Mortuary Landscape at the Sculptor’s Cave, NE Scotland

Summary

The Sculptor’s Cave in NE Scotland saw a long history of use, from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Medieval (Pictish) period. Late Bronze Age activity is characterised, as in other caves along this stretch of coast, by complex communal funerary practices involving the exposure and processing of human bodies. Veneration continued for many centuries, yet by the Roman Iron Age (c. 3rd century AD) perceptions of the cave had markedly changed. During this period, several adults were decapitated inside the cave, an event which can be situated in the political power struggles following Roman withdrawal from northern Britain. Scenes depicted on the nearby ‘Sueno’s stone’ attest to similar practices later in the Pictish period, and may even relate directly to those which took place in the Sculptor’s Cave itself. The carving of enigmatic Pictish symbols on the cave walls in the Early Medieval period attests to the enduring memory of this place and the events which took place there. This paper will explore the changing use of the Sculptor’s Cave and chart its contested role in this shifting political landscape.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Contested Caves: The Politics of Underground Places   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14346