Rural settlement: relating buildings, landscape, and people in the European Iron Age

Settlements vary across Iron Age Europe, in unit size and density, distribution and landscape management strategies, but also in terms of preservation. The rich Scottish evidence, with some exceptional preservation, offers valuable comparison to continental or Scandinavian material. The longer time-frames of northern Iron Ages allow tracing of long-term developments. To exploit this, two well-established Iron Age seminar groups have come together with the settlement archaeologists at the University of Edinburgh to offer this three-day workshop. This will connect evidence and views from across Europe to inform dialogue on common themes, regional variation and the roles of rural settlements in Iron Age societies. A holistic approach is encouraged that assimilates individual buildings into the changing textures of wider landscapes, patterns of land holding, density and permanency of settlement and the variability of land use strategies.

HCA Rural Settlement programme (1.38 MB PDF)

HCA Rural Settlement abstracts (1.4 MB PDF)