Populating the Past - Dave Cowley - ARP 2022

Populating the Past: Counting People in Iron Age East Lothian
This paper presents the results of a settlement and landscape-based study of
population in southeast Scotland, focusing mainly on the Iron Age. The analysis of
settlement and territorial patterning considers multiple scenarios that allow for the
many poorly understood factors that underpin the modelling of ancient populations.
These include considerable variation in the reliability of archaeological datasets, the
difficulties of establishing contemporaneity of occupation, and the complexity of
defining patterns of inhabitation. Situating the available evidence in a settlement and
landscape framework allows long-term perspectives on the division of the landscape
into settlement and non-settlement zones to be developed. These provide building
blocks for discussion of multiple scenarios for the densities, patterning and dynamics
of population. The outcomes of the analysis of Iron Age population dynamics are
compared with settlement and census data from the 1750s AD, which date to the cusp
of the demographic transition to 'modern' societies. The analysis of this data identifies
the persistence of aspects of landscape organisation, settlement patterning and
territorial frameworks. The long-term perspective highlights the enduring relationships
of preindustrial populations and their landscapes and provides a framework within
which to consider how population dynamics have changed across space and time.
Dave Cowley works in the Archaeological Survey team at Historic Environment
Scotland and has recently completed a part-time PhD at Ghent University on the topic
of 'From points to pattern, and pattern to population: long term settlement patterns
and demography in East Lothian, Scotland'.
Presentation by Dave Cowley
Historic Environment Scotland & Department of Archaeology, University of Ghent