Irish–Scottish connections in the first millennium AD:

an evaluation of the links between souterrain ware

and Hebridean ceramics

IAN ARMIT*
Division of Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences,
University of Bradford, United Kingdom

[Accepted 30 May 2007. Published 9 May 2008.]

Abstract Although some limited consideration has been given to the possibility of links
between the early medieval ceramic traditions of the Western Isles and the souterrain
ware of north-east Ireland, these have tended to be framed in the context of sup-
posed Dalriadic cultural influence flowing from Ireland to Scotland. A re-evaluation
of the possible relationships between these pottery styles suggests that souterrain
ware might instead be seen as part of a regional expansion of western Scottish pot-
tery styles in the seventh–eighth centuries AD. This raises the question of what social
processes might underlie the cross-regional patterning evident in what remains a
vernacular, rather than a high-status, technology.

Introduction Archaeological studies of cultural connections between Scotland and Ireland during
the first millennium AD have been hampered by a number of perceptual and organi-
sational factors. Modern political boundaries have inevitably led to the emergence
of distinct archaeological traditions within Scotland and Ireland, while histories of
prospection, methodologies of recording, conventions in publication, and priorities
for excavation have also evolved differently. Curatorial and classificatory systems
have similarly grown up quite separately on either side of the North Channel. While
understandable for a variety of reasons, this has tended to compartmentalise primary
archaeological research and prevent the perception of some interesting aspects of
cultural patterning which cut across modern political boundaries.
The few attempts to embrace material on both sides of the water in our period
have tended to be driven not by archaeological, but by historical or pseudo-historical
questions deriving from what are generally very partial documentary sources. For the
first millennium AD the two great marker points are of course the supposed Dalriadic
migration from Ulster to Argyll around AD 500, and the Viking movements south
and westwards through the Hebrides to south-west Scotland and Ireland from around
AD 800. It is the first of these that is of concern to us most directly here. For present
purposes, the discussion will be restricted to the specifically archaeological aspects
of the debates surrounding Scottish Dál Riata.
*
Author’s e-mail: i.armit@qub.ac.uk
doi: 10.3318/PRIAC.2008.108.1

Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Vol. 108C, 1–18 © 2008 Royal Irish Academy
Ian Armit

Dál Riata in The voice of all Antiquity pronounces Ireland to have been Scotia: to omit
archaeology a host of authorities, Adamnan’s Life of Columba and Bede’s Ecclesiastical
History ought to have been sufficient to prevent a question being raised on
the subject.
Dr William Reeves quoted by Anderson 1881

Debates on the historical authenticity of the Dalriadic migrations have ebbed and
flowed, but the archaeological side of the debate in particular has been dogged by
the problems associated with properly assimilating the archaeological material from
Antrim and Argyll. While recent attempts to downplay the likelihood of a significant
migration have much to commend them, especially with regard to the detailed critique
of the available documentary material (Campbell 2001), the archaeological side of
the question has been more difficult to address. The divergent research traditions and
priorities of archaeologists in Atlantic Scotland and north-east Ireland have been such
that the archaeological material from the two areas is not easily synthesised. Argyll,
for example, has benefited from survey programmes carried out over many years and
published in admirable detail (R.C.A.H.M.S. 1971; 1975; 1980; 1984; 1988). Even if
its archaeology remains less well understood than in other parts of Atlantic Scotland
(partly because of the sheer density and variety of the settlement record), its settle-
ment patterns in the mid-first millennium AD can at least be sketched in outline (e.g.
Armit 2004). In essence, these comprise landscapes of small stone-walled enclosed
settlements and crannogs interspersed with a smaller number of larger, nuclear forts,
which represent the residences of the upper echelons of Dalriadic society (Alcock
1987; Nieke 1990; Lane and Campbell 2000; Campbell 2001).
Given the centrality of the written sources in determining archaeological
research agendas for this area, it is unsurprising that such attempts as have been
made to investigate Scottish–Irish links in the mid-first millennium AD have focussed
on the quest to identify Irish antecedents, or at least parallels, for this distinctive (and
presumably Dalriadic) settlement pattern. It is probably fair to say that archaeologists
working in Scotland have taken the lead in these matters; not unexpectedly given the
iconic quality of the Dalriadic settlement in the wider history of the Scottish nation
(since the dynasts of Dál Riata eventually became the first successful monarchs of a
nation approximating to the geography of modern Scotland). By contrast, the archae-
ological identification of Irish Dál Riata has been a peripheral question at best for
most Irish archaeologists.
Unlike Argyll, the key area within Ireland, the Antrim coast, has been poorly
served by archaeological survey of field monuments, despite a long and impres-
sive tradition of artefact collection, particularly associated with the rich coastal flint
sources. There has been no published survey to match the Royal Commission’s work
in Argyll, or indeed to match Jope’s (1966) Archaeological survey of County Down.
Nor has there been any real delineation in print of the specific character of late pre-
historic and early medieval settlement patterns. Perhaps as a result, archaeologists
seeking Irish Dál Riata have had to be content with a rather homogenised Irish settle-
ment pattern of ringforts and crannogs synthesised and analysed by writers for whom
the question of Dalriadic origins was of limited interest.

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 Irish–Scottish connections in the first millennium AD

Closer examination of the specific character of Irish Dál Riata, however,

reveals some possible parallels for nuclear forts in north-east Ireland (e.g. Doonmore
near Fair Head; Anon 1988, 6) as well as a range of coastal enclosures with morpho-
logical similarities to their counterparts in Argyll (including the traditional capital of
Irish Dál Riata at Dunseverick). Irish Dál Riata also contains an unusually low dens-
ity of ringforts which, in any case, seem to date well after the traditional period of
the Dalriadic migration (Stout 1997). Nonetheless, despite some promising avenues
for further research, the parallels remain generalised and less than compelling.

Archaeology and Campbell (2001) has convincingly highlighted the problems with the conventional
early histories picture of Fergus Mór’s cross-channel migration, yet we must give weight nonethe-
less to the more general theme of cultural contacts between north-east Ireland and
Scotland at this time. The tale of Fergus may be an origin-myth conjured up to serve
the interests of one particular band of aspirant dynasts, but to carry any force it must
surely have reflected some perceived reality, some experience or social memory of
contacts and movements of individuals, families and war-bands across the North
Channel. The archaeological evidence for such contacts runs deep, from at least the
Neolithic (e.g. Cooney 2000) to the early centuries AD (Warner 1983), a matter of a
few generations before our mythical(?) Fergus.
It is inevitable, particularly in a period when literacy was a new and socially
restricted phenomenon, that written records will reflect the interests, motives and
preoccupations of the social group who commission and/or produce them. In the
period in question that group was comprised of clerics and dynasts (particularly the
more enduringly successful ones). Thus we have a plethora of saints’ lives, kings’
lists and brief records of historical events (mainly battles and sieges) significant in
the world-view of that particular subset of the early medieval population. Yet the
worlds portrayed in these fragmentary accounts should not be equated with the ‘real’
worlds of the time. To take one example, do terms like Dál Riata reflect genuine
ethnonyms that would have been applicable to, and understood by, the majority of
the people occupying Argyll in the mid-first millennium AD? Or should we simply
understand them as referring to the dominant elite? If, as seems probable, the latter is
closer to the truth, then the ‘histories’ portrayed in the records associated with these
elites come to seem even more partial and skewed. There is no particular reason,
therefore, why the patternings observable in the material culture of the period should
bear any specific relationship to ‘historical’ interpretations extrapolated from these
records. As archaeologists, we would be foolish to turn our backs on the documen-
tary sources, but we also need to avoid privileging them as any more than insights
into the actions, self-identities and motivations of a limited (if influential) sector of
the population.
This really is the core of the problem. As archaeologists, should we not strive
to resist the magnetic charms of these historical episodes and investigate the very
real archaeological linkages between these near neighbours in their own right? Even
if Fergus did exist, and even if he and his followers did make the crossing and estab-
lish the Dalriadic dynasty in Argyll, his migration was part of a long-term process;
a process which has left a good deal of archaeological evidence if we choose to look

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Ian Armit

for it. This evidence ranges beyond even the most generous reconstruction of historic
Dál Riata, both chronologically and geographically.
What is required, in the author’s view, is a stricter archaeological approach
to the period, focusing on the observable patterning of material culture across parts
of the region over the long term, and avoiding any specific focus on ‘events’ attested
by the fragmentary documentary sources. Even a superficial analysis of the material
culture of the mid-first millennium AD suggests parallels between western Scotland
and north-eastern Ireland. Most obviously, both share in the distribution of certain
types of high-status metalwork, ranging from doorknob spearbutts in the fourth–fifth
centuries AD (Heald 2001) through to a range of brooch and pin types in subsequent
centuries. The example we will examine here, however, is one which reflects material
culture at a ‘vernacular’ level as distinct from the high-status exchange of decorated
metalwork: indigenous hand-made ceramics. This paper endeavours to show that the
study of such material has been inhibited both by the organisational divide which
separates Scottish and Irish archaeology, and, perhaps more importantly, by a mis-
placed reliance on the documentary sources. The specific case of Dál Riata will be
returned to later.

Early medieval Although I was following the coastline, I seemed to be making little progress,
pottery in Ireland for, however far I travelled, the Mull of Kintyre was still visible on the right
and Scotland hand side ... It was some time before I worked out that what I had been
looking at was County Antrim. Ireland had been omitted from the atlas.

(Bradley 2003, 222)

For most of Scotland and Ireland the early medieval period is effectively aceramic.
The exceptions to this general observation, however, are the north-east of Ireland and
the Hebrides. In Ireland, the appearance of a geographically restricted ceramic trad-
ition at this time seems rather surprising, since Ireland had apparently been aceramic
throughout the preceding Iron Age (Raftery 1995). In Scotland, however, the Hebri-
dean pottery tradition of the mid-first millennium AD represents simply the continu-
ation of a long-established tradition of ceramic usage that stretches back through the
Iron Age and earlier (indeed a seemingly unbroken tradition of ceramic production
can be traced back to the Early Neolithic in the Western Isles).
A glance at an initial distribution map showing these two pottery traditions
(Fig. 1), each an island in its own aceramic desert, suggests the possibility of some
form of cultural link between the two. Yet, despite some previous consideration of
possible relationships between these traditions, this appears to be the first time that
the two distributions have been mapped together, and there has been no systematic
comparative study of ceramics across the region as a whole. Indeed, such limited
discussion as there has been on the possibility of cultural links in pottery production
have focussed almost exclusively on the role of pottery as an indicator of Dalriadic
colonial influence (e.g. Young 1966, 54). As is so often the case, archaeological
research has been led by questions drawn from documentary sources; sources which,
in this instance, seem particularly inappropriate.

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 Irish–Scottish connections in the first millennium AD

FIG. 1—Unmodified distributions of Hebridean ‘Plain Style’ pottery and souterrain ware; after Lane 1990, ill. 7.7 and
Edwards 1990 respectively.

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Ian Armit

FIG. 2—Souterrain ware: a. Dundrum Sandhills, b. Lough Faughaun, c. Moylarg crannog,

d. Ballymacash, e. Lissue (a–d after Edwards 1990, 72, fig. 28; e after Bersu 1948, 52, fig. 12).

Pottery in Ireland

The early medieval period in the north-east of Ireland sees the emergence of locally
produced hand-made ceramics known collectively as souterrain ware (Fig. 2, Ryan
1973). Although there are clear variations within souterrain ware (e.g. Lane 1983
349–58) it has nonetheless usually been discussed as a single style, and insufficient
analysis of specific assemblages has been achieved to facilitate any meaningful sub-
division. The following observations thus treat souterrain ware, heuristically, as a
homogenous ceramic tradition:

1. Souterrain ware has no particularly close link with souterrains. The pot-
tery is found on sites of all early medieval settlement types and was clear-
ly employed by at least some of those individuals inhabiting high status
sites such as crannogs, ecclesiastical establishments and even the possible
‘nuclear’ fort of Doonmore (Childe 1938; McMullen 2000).

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 Irish–Scottish connections in the first millennium AD

2. The quality of the pottery is variable, but much if not all of it seems to
have been fired on simple open hearths (McMullen 2000, 5–6), presumably
in a domestic context. The impression is of a well-established regional
tradition carried out by non-specialists as was the case with prehistoric
pottery in the Western Isles.
3. Souterrain ware is overwhelmingly restricted in its distribution to the
north-east of Ireland, mostly to counties Antrim and Down (although
the dominance of these over adjacent counties may be exaggerated by the
distribution of archaeological excavations within Ulster). Despite a few
outliers further south along the east coast, the population of the rest of
early Christian Ireland was seemingly content to remain aceramic, pre-
sumably using vessels of metal, wood or other perishable materials to
fulfil the roles in cooking, serving and food storage, which souterrain
ware provided in the north-east.
4. There is considerable variation within the region in terms of forms, fabrics
and the predominance of various decorative motifs (see Edwards 1990,
73 for a summary), but most usually the pots appear to have been ‘flat-
bottomed with straight, nearly vertical sides’ (Mallory and McNeill 1991,
217). The perceived unity of the style may derive in part from its position
as one small ‘ceramic island’ in a much larger aceramic island. Any inter-
nal variation, in other words, is negligible when compared with the more
deep-rooted distinction between the ceramic and aceramic regions. When
examined in detail, however, it is clear that there is in fact significant vari-
ation in form and style, with flaring rims being documented, for example,
from Ballintoy (Evans 1945).
5. The occurrence of ‘grass-marking’ on the basal portions of many sou-
terrain ware vessels has played a central role in earlier discussions of
the possible links between the Irish and Scottish ceramic traditions (e.g.
Young 1966, 54). Grass-marked vessels seem to have been numerically
dominant in the souterrain ware tradition, although it is important to note
that their proportions and distribution within assemblages have not been
recorded systematically (Ivens 1984).
It has often seemed that grass-marking has been accorded a
cultural significance, marking these Irish pots as somehow intrinsically
different from contemporary non-grass-marked vessels in the Hebrides.
As has been shown experimentally, however, grass-marking results sim-
ply from the use of chopped grass to prevent the vessel adhering to its
base plate during manufacture (Ivens 1984, contra Thomas 1968). The
Hebridean ceramic tradition was to a large extent practised in loca-
tions on or close to the extensive machair coastlines, with their unlim-
ited quantities of clean pure shell sand (Armit 1996), which could have
served the same purpose as chopped grass. Indeed, sand was probably
also used in Ireland, as many souterrain ware vessels show no evidence
of grass-marking. It would be interesting to see if grass-marking occurs
preferentially on sites distant from ready sources of sand, but no such
study has yet been carried out.

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Ian Armit

Grass-marking is by no means exclusive to souterrain ware.

Examples can be found on Cornish pottery of the mid-first millennium AD
(Preston-Jones and Rose 1986), and variations on the theme are also evident
much earlier in the Hebridean Iron Age, notably at Eilean Olabhat, North
Uist, where grass mat impressions are prominent on the bases of vessels
dating to around the fourth century BC (Armit et al. forthcoming), as well
as during the Norse period. One clear line of enquiry for future research
on souterrain ware is the degree to which the occurrence of grass-marking
varies both chronologically and geographically. In any case, it seems on
present evidence that the initial occurrence of grass-marking in Ireland
need be no more than a simple reflection of functional expediency in the
production process, with no implications for cultural origins or influences.
6. There appears to have been a development from an initial plain style
towards increasing decoration principally in the form of applied cordons
(Ryan 1973, 628–9), the classic case being the ringfort of Lissue (Bersu
1947). These applied cordons are remarkably similar to those which dom-
inate Hebridean assemblages in the early–mid-first millennium AD (see
below) but this need not occasion any particular excitement since similar
motifs can be found in widely different times and places, and are probably
skeuomorphs mimicking the stitching on leather bags, as well as fulfilling
a functional role as aids for lifting.
7. Despite this outline of relative chronology, the absolute chronological
range of souterrain ware is poorly understood. Ryan, using a range of
material associations (which he acknowledged as being unsatisfactory),
proposed a range from the sixth–seventh century AD to the twelfth cen-
tury or later (Ryan 1973, 626). Later writers have been more cautious
regarding the proposed start dates and have tended to place the origins of
souterrain ware in the seventh–eighth centuries (Edwards 1990, 74) with
the eighth century more generally favoured (Mallory and McNeill 1991,
201). Although, in some cases, souterrain ware has been recovered from
the same sites as E-Ware (Ryan 1973, 626) which now seems to have
been traded primarily in the first half of the seventh century (Campbell
cited in Lane 1994, 107), the two types have yet to be found in the same
contexts. Where stratigraphic information is available, souterrain ware
seems to have been deposited later than E-Ware (e.g. Lynn 1986). It is
highly probable that souterrain ware was in use by the AD 780s, as a sherd
from a mill in Drumard Townland appears to pre-date the emplacement of
timbers felled in AD 782 (Baillie 1986), while the decorated assemblages
most likely appeared during the ninth century at the earliest (Mallory
and McNeill 1991). A radiocarbon date (UB-2002 1380+65 bp) from the
pre-Rath B levels at Dunsilly, Co. Antrim, which contained undecorated
souterrain ware (McNeill 1992), calibrates to AD 530–780 at 2 sigma,
suggesting that souterrain ware was present at the site during the eighth
century, if not earlier. On balance, it seems most likely that souterrain
ware first appears in the period from the mid-seventh to the mid-eighth
centuries AD, between approximately AD 650–780.

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 Irish–Scottish connections in the first millennium AD

In general, explanations for the origins of souterrain ware have tended to

focus within Ireland itself and have adopted a culture-historical approach. In par-
ticular it has been suggested that the distribution of souterrain ware may reflect the
‘political and other distinctiveness of the kingdom of the Ulaid’ (Ryan 1973, 631–2),
a cultural distinctiveness which may even be reflected in the earlier concentration of
La Tène metalwork in the north-east. It is unclear, however, why ‘dietary and culinary
practice’ (Ryan 1973) should be different under the Ulaid than elsewhere in Ireland.
Cultural connections with areas outside Ireland have also been invoked at
various times. The possible contribution of Cornish pottery traditions will not be
pursued here (see Ryan 1973, 629); instead, we will focus on the suggestion of a
Hebridean connection. First, however, we must examine the present state of under-
standing of the western Scottish pottery sequence.

The pottery sequence in western Scotland

While Iron Age pottery usage in most of Scotland was minimal, a strong and highly
developed ceramic tradition was maintained in the north and west, centring on the
Western Isles. This pottery was locally produced and hand-made, exhibiting a wide
range of vessel and rim forms, and a high degree of decoration. Although at its
most profuse and elaborate in the Western Isles, similar pottery was made in Orkney,
Shetland and the north Scottish mainland.
The southern extent of this pottery style during the Middle Iron Age is
relevant to the subsequent development of ceramics in the region. Lane has delineated
a zone of distribution encompassing the Western Isles and Skye but extending no
further south than Coll and Tiree (Fig. 1). This, however, is simply the zone with the
greatest density of sites and the largest assemblages. Lane also notes limited occur-
rences of this pottery style on Islay, Oronsay, Iona (at Dun Cul Bhuirg; Ritchie and
Lane 1980) and even at Dun Kildalloig close to the southern tip of Kintyre (Lane
1990, 123–6). The revised distribution zone indicated here (Fig. 3) takes account of
these additional sites.
During the first millennium AD ceramic production continued but with a
marked reduction in the variety of form and decoration, the latter becoming limited
to occasional applied cordons (Fig. 4, Armit 1992, 144). Nonetheless, Hebridean
sites of this period, e.g. Eilean Olabhat (Armit et al. forthcoming) and Loch na
Beirgh (Harding and Gilmour 2000), continue to yield substantial assemblages. By
the eighth century, Hebridean pottery was more or less devoid of decoration and
forms had become restricted to simple bucket shapes with straight sides or flaring
rims; Alan Lane’s ‘Hebridean Plain Style’ (Lane 1990). Lane drew attention to the
problems in establishing a chronology for this pottery style, which was until recently
reliant on the problematic dating evidence from the Udal in North Uist (Lane 1990,
122–3). This had seemed to suggest a start date for the pottery as early as the fourth
or fifth centuries AD. More recently, however, excavated assemblages from Loch na
Beirgh (Harding and Gilmour 2000) and the pre-Plain Style assemblage from Eilean
Olabhat (Armit et al. forthcoming) have indicated that the Plain Style is most unlike-
ly to pre-date the seventh century AD.

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Ian Armit

FIG. 3—Early medieval hand-made pottery in Scotland and Ireland, also indicating the main distribution of the Hebridean
Iron Age pottery tradition.

10
 Irish–Scottish connections in the first millennium AD

FIG. 4—Hebridean ‘Plain Style’ pottery: a–c. Dun Cuier, Barra (after Young 1955, 20, fig. 7);
d–e. Udal, North Uist (after Lane 1990, 118, illus. 7.3).

The distribution of Plain Style pottery remained centred on the Western

Isles, although hand-made ceramics from Iona (Lane and Campbell in Haggarty
1988, 208–12; Hall in McCormick 1993, 89), Dunadd (Lane and Campbell 2000,
104) and Ardnave on Islay (Lane 1990, 127) suggest some use of ceramics further
south in Argyll. This ‘southern extension’ of the western Scottish material will be
discussed in greater detail below as it is of considerable importance in the study of
the interaction between Scotland and Ireland. A small quantity of hand-made ceram-
ics, including one sherd of possible souterrain ware, has also been recovered from
the excavations at Whithorn in the south-west of Scotland (Campbell 1997, 358).
Lane has also defined a distinct ‘Viking Age’ pottery assemblage in the
Western Isles initially identified on the basis of his work at the Udal in North Uist
and subsequently recognised on numerous, often unstratified sites, throughout the
islands (Lane 1983, 350–8). This pottery is characterised by ‘sagging and flat-based
bowls, cups and flat pottery discs or platters’ and, like souterrain ware, it is often
grass-marked (Lane 1990, 123). The appearance of grass-marking in the Western
Isles is especially striking, as it represents the conscious replacement of traditional
techniques with a minor technological innovation which brought no obvious prac-
tical benefit.
Although Lane tentatively suggested a commencement in the ninth century
(1990, 122–3), the chronology of this ‘Viking Age’ pottery has become increasingly
problematic. The original dating was based on a single radiocarbon determination,
and some unpublished stratigraphic relationships to apparently Viking cultural mater-
ial, from the Udal in North Uist (Crawford n.d.). Recent excavations of a Norse

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Ian Armit

house at Cille Pheadair in South Uist, however, have suggested late eleventh or
twelfth century associations for the platters which form the most distinctive elements
of this assemblage (Campbell 2002, 142). Excavations at Bornais Mound 3, also in
South Uist, have similarly shown an absence of platters in levels dated from the late
tenth and early eleventh centuries, and their first appearance in levels dated from the
late thirteenth to late fourteenth centuries (Lane 2005, 194). This substantially later
dating may also be supported by the suggestion that these platters are skeuomorphs
of flat disc baking stones found in Late Norse contexts in both Scandinavia and the
Northern Isles (Campbell 2002, 142). All of this suggests that the transition from
Lane’s Plain Style to what now appears misleadingly labelled as ‘Viking-Age’ pot-
tery, may date anywhere between the ninth and twelfth centuries, with the balance
of probability suggesting a post-1000 AD start date. While the appearance of grass-
marking may yet reflect a movement of ceramic technology from Ireland to Scotland,
it cannot be taken as a proxy Dalriadic colonial expansion. Instead, this particular
phase of interaction appears to occur in a Late Norse context.

Scottish–Irish The seemingly unlikely appearance of early medieval pottery production in the very
connections area of Ireland closest to the ‘reservoir’ of ceramic production that is the Western
Isles clearly demands investigation. Possible connections between these Irish and
Scottish pottery traditions have been suggested by scholars on both sides of the
North Channel at various times over the past century. Estyn Evans (1945), for exam-
ple, suggested some rather generalised parallels between pottery from Ballintoy in
Co. Antrim and the Hebridean assemblages as early as 1945, while Proudfoot (1958,
27–8) made similar observations with regard to the souterrain ware assemblage from
the ringfort ditch at Ballyaghagan.
In Scotland, the first significant work was by Alison Young, drawing on her
extensive experience of excavation in the Western Isles. Young (1955, 310–11) sug-
gested, for example, that sherds of what would now be identified as Hebridean Plain
Ware, from the latest pre-Norse occupation at Dun Cuier in Barra and A’ Cheardach
Bheag in South Uist (Young and Richardson 1959), might be derived from ‘Northern
Irish’ pottery via contacts with Dalriadan settlement of Argyll. Young’s suggested
links, most fully developed in her 1966 paper on the overall development of Hebridean
pottery styles (Young 1966, 54), centred on the perceived similarity of forms (nota-
bly flaring and inturned rims) and certain fabric types between elements of the Dun
Cuier assemblage and Irish sites like Drumnakill (Evans 1945) and the promon-
tory fort at Larriban (Childe 1938). The flaring rim forms identified by Evans at the
former site (e.g. 1945, 27 fig. 7) certainly appear similar to those of Hebridean Plain
Style vessels, although they are unstratified and may (on the basis of decoration on
some) be fairly late in the souterrain ware sequence. Ryan examined the Dun Cuier
sherds as part of his study of souterrain ware but was non-committal on the possibil-
ity of a connection, citing the undiagnostic nature of the fabrics (1973, note 78).
It is interesting that, in Young’s view, the cultural influences driving the
development of these pottery styles were exclusively from Ireland to Scotland; the
vector of transmission being a hypothetical extension of the supposed historically
attested Dalriadic migration. Given the lengthy pedigree of pottery production in the

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 Irish–Scottish connections in the first millennium AD

Western Isles and the complete absence of any corresponding ceramic background in
Ireland, one might have expected that any influences would have flowed in precisely
the opposite direction. That this possibility seems not to have been considered gives
some indication of the power of the ‘Dalriadic paradigm’ and highlights the tendency
for archaeological evidence to be downplayed in favour of documentary evidence,
no matter how limited the latter might be. The same assumption of one-way cultural
traffic underlies Lane’s suggestion that pre-existing Hebridean pottery traditions
were ‘eventually influenced by the introduction of Souterrain Ware styles at Iona’
(1990, 127). More recent work and the general ‘tightening up’ of the chronology of
the western Scottish sequence, however, allows for a new picture to be developed.

Back to Dál Riata The rich settlement landscapes of Argyll have been subject to much less excavation
than those of the Western Isles, and this is particularly problematic when it comes to
understanding the material culture of the Iron Age and early medieval periods. None-
theless, there has been some excavation in recent times. Much of this has focussed
on sites associated with the historical presence of Dál Riata; particularly Dunadd, the
traditional capital of Scottish Dál Riata, and Iona, the monastic settlement associated
with Columba and his successors. Both sites have yielded indigenous hand-made
pottery, albeit in relatively small quantities compared to the settlement sites of the
Western Isles.
Excavations at Iona by various excavators over a number of years have yield-
ed several small assemblages of hand-made pottery. Lane and Campbell’s (1988) dis-
cussion of this material indicates that, although dating is imprecise, both locally made
and possibly also Irish-made pottery was in use within the monastic community in
the period from the seventh to ninth centuries AD, and certainly prior to AD 1000. This
equates to Reece’s ‘middle monastic phase’ (1981, 104), although the very earliest
phases of the monastery may have been aceramic (Barber 1981, 364). Among this
material are several sherds exhibiting the grass-marking associated with souterrain
ware, and grass-marked bases have come from at least three separate programmes of
excavation on the island (Barber 1981; Reece 1981; Haggarty 1988). The radiocar-
bon dates and general cultural context of the material strongly suggest a pre-Norse
date for this pottery (especially Reece 1981). This places the Iona material within
the same chronological bracket as Lane’s Hebridean Plain Style, although fabric,
form and the presence of likely imports tie the Iona material more closely to Ireland
than to the Western Isles. Slightly more recent excavations, however, have produced
further hand-made sherds including some from grass-tempered (as opposed to grass-
marked) vessels which Hall has explicitly linked to pre-Norse and Norse pottery
traditions of northern and western Scotland (Hall in McCormick 1993, 89).
Limited as it is, the pottery assemblage from Iona seems profuse when
compared with that from Dunadd. The excavations at Dunadd have produced only
two small sherds of hand-made pottery of likely early medieval date (seventh to
ninth centuries AD), and these are entirely unproven to be of that period (Lane and
Campbell 2000, 104). Nonetheless, their occurrence confirms the presence of ceram-
ics in the area during the period when Dalriadic power was at its height, i.e. during
the currency of the Hebridean Plain Style.

13
Ian Armit

Discussion Standing back from the detail, and ignoring for one moment the ‘historical’ Dalriadic
population movements, what patterns are discernible from this ceramic data? What
we appear to have, during the mid-seventh–eighth centuries AD, is a regional expan-
sion of ceramic production. From an initial focus on the Western Isles and western
seaboard of Scotland during the Middle Iron Age, ceramic production extends to
encompass much of north-east Ireland. Ceramic production continued in both areas
for several centuries thereafter with some evidence of regionality, most notably the
extensive occurrence of grass-marking in Ireland. From around AD 1000 or later, the
occurrence of grass-marking seems to have spread northwards, becoming common-
place across the whole region from the Western Isles (in Lane’s ‘Viking-Age’ style)
to Ulster. In other words, pottery production seems to have spread from Scotland
to Ireland some time around the mid-seventh–eighth centuries AD, followed by the
movement, several centuries later, in the eleventh or twelfth centuries AD, of a spe-
cific technological convention (the use of chopped grass as a basal treatment) back
from Ireland and southern Argyll to Scotland (the technique also appears some time
around the eighth century AD in Cornwall, suggesting either independent develop-
ment or some other current of influence). The seemingly spontaneous appearance of
grass-marking in Irish souterrain ware need occasion no particular surprise once we
abandon the idea that it represents some form of cultural marker.
The picture presented here is in marked contrast to former interpretations
which tended to see the Irish producers of souterrain ware as the prime movers,
introducing aspects of their ceramic technology to western Scotland as part of a
broader wave of Dalriadic cultural influence. We need then to consider the nature of
the social processes which underlie the patternings visible in the material culture.
What, in other words, does this pottery mean? The parallel developments in ceramics
in Ulster and western Scotland suggest that certain individuals or groups must have
moved within these regions during the mid-seventh–eighth centuries AD taking with
them knowledge of the techniques of hand-made pottery production and a range of
stylistic and technological traditions.
Who were these individuals? The evidence of the Western Isles pottery
sequence suggests that, by the middle of the first millennium AD, pot-making had
become a low-status activity. Vessels were functionally efficient but plain and sim-
ple. The elaborate visual language expressed through pottery decoration during the
Middle Iron Age had long since disappeared. If, as seems probable, pot-making was
primarily a female activity, then the decline in the centrality of ceramics within the
domestic sphere may reflect a downgrading of women’s roles through the first mil-
lennium AD. Alternatively, it has been suggested that from the end of the Middle Iron
Age there was a disintegration of traditional kinship bonds within the islands and the
establishment of hierarchies based increasingly on wealth and social position (Armit
2005). In this context we may see certain activities, such as pottery-making, being
increasingly associated with marginalised social groups. In either case, it appears
that by the second half of the first millennium AD pottery production was a ubiquitous
but low-status activity in the Western Isles. It seems probable, therefore, that paral-
lelism in ceramics between north-east Ireland and the Hebrides reflects the move-
ment of low status people; either as groups or individuals. This effectively means
that an entirely different set of social processes must be invoked in the interpretation

14
 Irish–Scottish connections in the first millennium AD

of these ceramic patterns than we might commonly use to account for the spread
of high-status objects such as the decorative metalwork that has absorbed so much
scholarly attention in this period (e.g. Spearman and Higgitt 1993). As we shall see,
however, the aggrandisement of this bejewelled elite group may have been intimately
associated with the physical displacement of the dispossessed.

Conclusion and Although the detailed discussion was restricted to the issue of ceramic links, similar
prospect arguments can be constructed using other aspects of material culture. For example,
the same areas within which these pottery traditions are found also witness the
development of distinctive figure-of-eight house forms which, in both regions, give
way over time to a new tradition of rectilinear buildings (e.g. Lynn 1978, Armit
1996). What is now required is the more detailed analysis of the full range of cul-
tural phenomena available to archaeologists, at scales appropriate to the phenomena
under discussion, and freed from the presumptions of pseudo-historical narrative.
We do not yet understand the mechanisms by which these cultural traits developed
and spread. What is clear is that they did not operate as discrete ‘packages’ in the trad-
itional culture-historical mould. Nor can they easily be equated to any ethnic map
which we might hope to reconstruct from analysis of the documentary sources.
The parallel development of ceramics shows contacts between the Western
Isles and north-eastern Ireland perhaps initiated in the mid-seventh–eighth centuries
with continuation or renewal of those contacts in the Late Norse period. These links,
observable in the patterning of material culture, suggest the spread of cultural influ-
ences at a ‘vernacular’ level, reflecting contacts and directions of movement that are
far from obvious from the limited documentary sources. Indeed this would suggest
that the cultural influences detectable archaeologically are not a proxy for the move-
ment of a ‘people’ (which would be, in any case, a rather anachronistic concept for
this period) but rather reflect a range of more complex social relationships relating
to the exploitation and displacement of low status and marginalised groups, and the
parallel emergence of a mobile aristocratic elite. One striking possibility is that low
status individuals were displaced from western Scotland to Ireland through slave-
raiding and trading, which were sponsored and mediated by elite groups such as the
Dalriadan aristocracy (Armit forthcoming).

Acknowledgements An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Society for American Archae-
ology’s sixty-ninth Annual Meeting in Montreal, 2004, supported by a British Acad-
emy Overseas Conference Grant.

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