Bronze Age Transhumance discovered at West Acres, Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire

Following the excavation in 2002 of a ring-groove roundhouse and associated palisade trenches at West Acres in Newton Mearns, AOC Archaeology Group began post-excavation analyses of the findings.

Charcoal recovered from the roundhouse and the palisades date this settlement to the second millennium BC. A considerable quantity of pottery sherds was recovered from within the roundhouse and also supports a Bronze Age date for the occupation of this site.

Of the three palisade trenches at the site, one bounded the roundhouse to the south, another cut the roundhouse and the third was cut by the roundhouse. It was evident therefore that a crescent shaped palisade preceded the roundhouse, another was contemporary to the roundhouse and the final palisade succeeded the abandonment of the roundhouse.

The size of the post-holes evident within the palisades seemed too substantial to simply represent windbreaks. While the palisades do not form enclosures, they do control movement at certain areas of the site. For example, the palisade to the south of the roundhouse might be understood as channelling movement along the passage between the southern wall of the roundhouse and the palisade itself. The nature of this palisade may even indicate in what direction movement was channelled. The extremely large post-holes and substantial packing stones evident towards the eastern end of this palisade indicate that here it was quite strong, where perhaps more resistance to being channelled along the passage was expected. The narrower and shallower dimensions together with the absence of largely any packing stones towards the western end of the palisade indicates that the palisade was much slighter there, because less resistance was expected along this length of the fence.

As all three palisades demonstrated these same characteristics, of one end being deeper and wider than the other, it is therefore possible that the site was used for the same purpose before, during and after the occupation of the roundhouse. Together with the evidence recovered by the analysis of soil chemistry from the roundhouse and the palisades, which indicated high phosphate levels, this purpose was probably the channelling or penning of animals within the inward curve of the palisade fences, in much the same way that a modern shepherd, with the help of a sheepdog, might hold sheep in the corner of a field. The varying strengths of the palisades is consistent with the behaviour of a flock of sheep, where after a bit of jostling at a gate, once channelled the flock will follow the appointed route.

Sheep handling pens from the Bronze Age have been recognised elsewhere in Britain and semi-circular embanked structures have been recognised as stock shelters or stock pens throughout upland areas in Northern Britain. The practice of transhumance is increasingly evident from a range of Bronze Age sites, commonly found on the edge of low-lying fenland but also in upland areas. The purpose of transhumance was to exploit the resources of animals pastured in marginal areas during the summer while at the same time preserving crops in more fertile areas. West Acres is located between the upland moors of Renfrewshire, which archaeological evidence demonstrates was only occupied by a thin scatter of dispersed Bronze Age settlement, and the lower-lying and more fertile Clyde valley, which archaeological evidence and analogy with other low-lying areas of Scotland indicates was more intensively settled. West Acres perhaps served as a focal point between the upland summer pastures and the lower-lying farms of the Clyde Valley, as a place to collect and process animals, such as for milking and shearing.

Given the importance of milk in prehistory, it is not surprising that lowland communities would desire to draw down from upland pastures on a regular basis, important food commodities such as milk, cheese and butter. Furthermore, the provision of cereals, such as the barley evident at West Acres, indicates that the provision of food commodities was not one way.

The evaluation and subsequent excavation at West Acres thus revealed evidence for the intelligent exploitation of different environments for appropriate crop and animal husbandry techniques in Bronze Age Scotland. These findings were published in 2006 by The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in their Proceedings Volume 135.

AOC Excavation Director: Ronan Toolis
Client: Mactaggart & Mickel