Gordon Noble
Biographic Data
| ID | 3642608 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gordon Noble |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gordon |
| FAMILY NAME | Noble |
| SIGNATURE | NOBLE G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Aberdeen |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4670-5658 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 48 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 93 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 48 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1965 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
A major monastic centre? Rethinking Lismore’s place in the ecclesiastical landscapes of early medieval Britain
Until recent decades, the monastery of Lios Mòr (Lismore) in Argyll, Scotland, established by Saint Mo Luóc in the sixth century, was attested only via historical references and local traditions. Community-led investigations have now revealed an early medieval cemetery, sophisticated craftworking of international importance and early structures around the island’s parish church. These discoveries underscore the site’s status as a high-ranking ecc…
Stone and the gods
Archaeology often adheres to established periodisations, sometimes overlooking long-term societal transformations. One such shift in Northern Britain during the first millennium AD was the emergence of naturalistic stone carving. Traditionally seen as an ‘early medieval’ phenomenon, recent dating suggests this tradition began in the Roman Iron Age. However, the deeper cognitive and material changes driving this transformation remain underexplored…
Buckquoy, Orkney
An increase in knowledge is usually beneficial but can also highlight misapprehensions of existing data. Such is the case for the Pictish-Norse transition in Northern Scotland in the later first millennium AD. New radiocarbon dates from the key ‘transitional’ settlement of Buckquoy, Orkney, reveal that traits previously published as indicative of incoming Norse influence pre-date the start of the Viking Age, suggesting a greater level of endogeno…
Flavours of Pictish life
Microbotanical residues may shed light on ancient foodways and culinary traditions. • Starch grains and phytoliths can be used to understand function of pots. • Food residues from Pictish pot sherds confirm cereals were common plant ingredients. Understanding the seasonal and daily aspects of late Roman and early medieval life in northern Britain has been hugely challenging due to a dearth of excavated sites and poor preservation of settlement fe…
Reconsidering the Forres cross-slab (Sueno’s Stone), part 1
Standing over 6.5m high, the Forres cross-slab (NJ 04655 59533), erroneously known as Sueno’s Stone, is Scotland’s tallest early medieval carved stone monument. Featuring an impressive series of battle scenes on one side of the monument and a large interlace decorated ring-headed cross on the other, the cross-slab has seen repeated attempts to link its creation to known historical events and to date the stone through art-historical parallels. In …
Defining the sanctissimus
This article presents the results of a programme of investigation into vallum enclosures around known or suspected early Christian church sites in eastern Scotland. Survey and keyhole excavation results are reported on for four sites: Abersnithock, Aberdeenshire; Migvie, Aberdeenshire; Glamis, Angus; and Dunkeld, Perth and Kinross. At each site a combination of aerial survey, geophysics and evaluative excavation revealed rectilinear or curvilinea…
New zooarchaeological evidence from Pictish sites in Scotland
Our knowledge of the use of livestock in early medieval Scotland is fragmentary and relies on a handful of well-studied faunal assemblages, with few from Pictland (north-east Scotland), an important and enigmatic group and latterly kingdom in Northern Britain that existed between the 3rd and 9th centuries AD. The assemblages that have been recovered and studied mainly occur at the limits of this territory, beyond the heartland of the Picts in the…
The role of geoarchaeology in the interpretation of fragmented buildings and occupation surfaces
Around the world, poorly preserved buildings and occupation deposits often represent the primary evidence for archaeological structures and settlements. Integrated geoarchaeological methods, such as soil chemistry and micromorphology, can be used to maximise the information obtained from such deposits regarding site preservation and the use of space. However, archaeologists are often reluctant to apply these methods if they suspect that preservat…
A new chronology for the Welsh hillfort of Dinas Powys
Excavated by Leslie Alcock in the 1950s, the inland promontory fort of Dinas Powys is widely cited as a type site for elite settlements of post-Roman western Britain. Alcock's interpretation and dating of the main defences as a Norman-period castle were effectively disproven in the 1990s, but the excavator's original chronology continues to be cited. Here, the authors present a revised chronology, integrating new radiocarbon dates and stratigraph…
Environmental reconstruction and formation processes in a large Mesolithic lithic scatter at Nethermills of Crathes, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
A hut on the hill
Caroline Rosa Wickham-Jones, MA MSocSci FSA HonFSAScot MCIfA
Caroline was a prolific, dedicated and accomplished academic of Scotland’s prehistory with an exemplary publication record
Burning Matters
ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS in early-medieval northern Britain was the re-emergence of fortified enclosures and settlements. As in western England and Wales, the fort rather than the hall formed the most prominent material manifestation of power of an elite and their client group. While fortified sites dominate our knowledge of the form that central places of power and governance took in the early-medieval period in northern Britain,…
Settlement, landscape and land-use change at a Pictish Elite Centre
The first millennium AD was a transformative period when many of the medieval kingdoms of Europe began to take shape, but despite recent advances in palaeoecological and archaeological research there remains a shortage of interdisciplinary collaborative research targeting this period. For some regions we know relatively little about the societies who lived during this formative period. This current investigation focusses on an early medieval elit…
Digitally Recording Excavations on a Budget
The increasing use of digital technologies can provide significant benefits to the excavation and interpretative process in archaeology. Yet, despite major developments in the last two decades, digital recording can still be seen as part of the realm of tech savvy archaeologists, well-funded projects, or larger commercial units who can develop their own recording systems or deploy a pre-existing application. The latter are often expensive and can…
Itinerancy, Ritualisation and Excavating Understanding
Peer reviewed
Identifying Social Transformations and Crisis during the Pre-Monastic to Post-Viking era on Iona
Iona is renowned for its early monastery, founded following the arrival of Columba in AD 563. This paper uses palaeoecological data to provide insight into the social and environmental transformations that influenced the landscape of Iona during the later prehistoric and historic periods. The identification of cereal pollen suggests that arable farming occurred during the Bronze Age and possibly continued through the Iron Age. Pastoral farming wa…
Dunnicaer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Dunnicaer, Aberdeenshire, a now isolated sea stack, is the findspot of five Pictish symbol stones discovered in the nineteenth century. Excavations from 2015 to 2017 have revealed a Roman Iron Age promontory fort, providing insights into the development of fortified settlement in north-east Scotland, with fortified sites being a key feature of first millennium AD elite practice in this region. The presence of rare and unusual finds indicates cont…
Re‐imagining Navan Fort
This article presents major discoveries from a new campaign of large‐scale multi‐method geophysical surveying, focused on Navan Fort and its environs. Alongside a re‐appraisal of excavated evidence, it offers a new model for the evolution of Navan. The large earthwork now known as Navan Fort sits alongside other iconic monuments such as Tara, Rathcroghan, Knockaulin and Cashel as one of Ireland’s so‐called provincial centres. Historical texts imp…
Survey and excavation at an Iron Age enclosure complex on Turin Hill and environs
This paper presents the results of a programme of survey and evaluative excavation at a complex of five enclosures on Turin Hill in Angus, Scotland. This includes one large bivallate hillfort, an oblong fort and three smaller duns. The aim of the investigation was to re-map the surviving archaeological features and clarify the chronology of the sites. Geophysical survey was also undertaken and clarified various aspects of the enclosures on the hi…
New dates for enclosed sites in north-east Scotland
This article presents the results of a programme of investigation into the enclosed settlements/forts and promontory forts of north-east Scotland, undertaken as part of the Northern Picts project. Reconnaissance excavations are reported on for nine sites: Crathie Point and Durn Hill, northern Aberdeenshire (Banffshire); Barmkyn of North Keig, Hill of Keir, Hill of Christ’s Kirk and Cnoc Cailliche (Wheedlemont), central Aberdeenshire; and Doune of…
New Evidence for Upland Occupation in the Mesolithic of Scotland
This paper discusses the evidence for periodic human activity in the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland from the late 9th millennium to the early 4th millennium cal bc . While contemporary paradigms for Mesolithic Europe acknowledge the significance of upland environments, the archaeological record for these areas is not yet as robust as that for the lowland zone. Results of excavation at Chest of Dee, along the headwaters of the River Dee, are set …
Warrior ideologies in first-millennium AD Europe
Kinneddar
The early Christian sculpture from Kinneddar has long been noted as a major assemblage. New survey work by the University of Aberdeen and AOC Archaeology has identified a large vallum enclosure around the site that was renewed on at least one occasion. The vallum enclosures surrounded an area of up to 8.6ha, and the groundplan presents striking resemblances to other major ecclesiastical sites, particularly Iona. Evaluative excavations instigated …
A Powerful Place of Pictland
Many thanks to the students, staff and volunteers who have made Rhynie 2011–17 possible and to Rhynie Woman who have brought so much to the community element of the project. Fieldwork at Rhynie has been funded by the University of Aberdeen Development Trust, British Academy, Historic Environment Scotland, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and Aberdeenshire Council Archaeology Service. The writing …
Between prehistory and history
The development of small-scale kingdoms in the post-Roman world of northwestern Europe is a key stage in the subsequent emergence of medieval states. Recent excavations at Rhynie in north-eastern Scotland have thrown important light on the emergence of one such kingdom, that of the Picts. Enclosures, sculptured 'symbol stones' and long-distance luxury imports identify Rhynie as a place of growing importance during the fifth to sixth centuries AD.…
Little House in the Mountains? A small Mesolithic structure from the Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland
A Powerful Place of Pictland
Many thanks to the students, staff and volunteers who have made Rhynie 2011–17 possible and to Rhynie Woman who have brought so much to the community element of the project. Fieldwork at Rhynie has been funded by the University of Aberdeen Development Trust, British Academy, Historic Environment Scotland, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and Aberdeenshire Council Archaeology Service. The writing …
Big Enclosures
Palisaded enclosures were huge enclosed spaces with timber boundaries found across Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia in the Neolithic. Five such sites have been identified in Scotland dating to the later Neolithic, four of which have been excavated to varying degrees. These sites form the main focus of this paper, which draws in particular on interim results from the authors' excavations at Forteviot, Perth and Kinross, during 2007–2009. The pali…
Dunnicaer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Dunnicaer, Aberdeenshire, a now isolated sea stack, is the findspot of five Pictish symbol stones discovered in the nineteenth century. Excavations from 2015 to 2017 have revealed a Roman Iron Age promontory fort, providing insights into the development of fortified settlement in north-east Scotland, with fortified sites being a key feature of first millennium AD elite practice in this region. The presence of rare and unusual finds indicates cont…
Cremation Practices and the Creation of Monument Complexes
Around the beginning of the 3rd millennium cal bc a cremation cemetery was established at Forteviot, central Scotland. This place went on to become one of the largest monument complexes identified in Mainland Scotland, with the construction of a palisaded enclosure, timber structures, and a series of henge monuments and other enclosures. The cemetery was established between 3080 and 2900 cal bc , probably in the 30th century cal bc , which is con…
Ritual and remembrance at a prehistoric ceremonial complex in central Scotland
Aerial photography and excavations have brought to notice a major prehistoric ceremonial complex in central Scotland comparable to Stonehenge, although largely built in earth and timber. Beginning, like Stonehenge, as a cremation cemetery, it launched its monumentality by means of an immense circle of tree trunks, and developed it with smaller circles of posts and an earth bank (henge). A change of political mood in the Early Bronze Age is marked…
Harnessing the waves
New Evidence for Upland Occupation in the Mesolithic of Scotland
This paper discusses the evidence for periodic human activity in the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland from the late 9th millennium to the early 4th millennium cal bc . While contemporary paradigms for Mesolithic Europe acknowledge the significance of upland environments, the archaeological record for these areas is not yet as robust as that for the lowland zone. Results of excavation at Chest of Dee, along the headwaters of the River Dee, are set …
Excavations at a Multi-period Site at Greenbogs, Aberdeenshire, Scotland and the Four-post Timber Architecture Tradition of Late Neolithic Britain and Ireland
This report outlines the unexpected discovery of a group of Late Neolithic structures at Greenbogs, Monymusk in Aberdeenshire, along with a series of later prehistoric features in the mid-1990s. Recent radiocarbon dating shows that two four-post timber structures found here date to the period 2890–2490 cal bc . These were found in association with a range of other features including an oval structure and diffuse areas of burning. The closest para…
The role of geoarchaeology in the interpretation of fragmented buildings and occupation surfaces
Around the world, poorly preserved buildings and occupation deposits often represent the primary evidence for archaeological structures and settlements. Integrated geoarchaeological methods, such as soil chemistry and micromorphology, can be used to maximise the information obtained from such deposits regarding site preservation and the use of space. However, archaeologists are often reluctant to apply these methods if they suspect that preservat…
Settlement, landscape and land-use change at a Pictish Elite Centre
The first millennium AD was a transformative period when many of the medieval kingdoms of Europe began to take shape, but despite recent advances in palaeoecological and archaeological research there remains a shortage of interdisciplinary collaborative research targeting this period. For some regions we know relatively little about the societies who lived during this formative period. This current investigation focusses on an early medieval elit…
Identifying Social Transformations and Crisis during the Pre-Monastic to Post-Viking era on Iona
Iona is renowned for its early monastery, founded following the arrival of Columba in AD 563. This paper uses palaeoecological data to provide insight into the social and environmental transformations that influenced the landscape of Iona during the later prehistoric and historic periods. The identification of cereal pollen suggests that arable farming occurred during the Bronze Age and possibly continued through the Iron Age. Pastoral farming wa…
The Bennachie Colony
(Re)discovering the Gaulcross hoard
A hut on the hill
Digitally Recording Excavations on a Budget
The increasing use of digital technologies can provide significant benefits to the excavation and interpretative process in archaeology. Yet, despite major developments in the last two decades, digital recording can still be seen as part of the realm of tech savvy archaeologists, well-funded projects, or larger commercial units who can develop their own recording systems or deploy a pre-existing application. The latter are often expensive and can…
A new chronology for crannogs in north-east Scotland
This article presents the results of a programme of investigation which aimed to construct a more detailed understanding of the character and chronology of crannog occupation in north-east Scotland, targeting a series of sites across the region. The emerging pattern revealed through fieldwork in the region shows broad similarities to the existing corpus of data from crannogs in other parts of the country. Crannogs in north-east Scotland now show …
The development of the Pictish symbol system
The date of unique symbolic carvings, from various contexts across north and east Scotland, has been debated for over a century. Excavations at key sites and direct dating of engraved bone artefacts have allowed for a more precise chronology, extending from the third/fourth centuries AD, broadly contemporaneous with other non-vernacular scripts developed beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire, to the ninth century AD. These symbols were probabl…
The Monumental Cemeteries of Northern Pictland
Peer reviewed
Flavours of Pictish life
Microbotanical residues may shed light on ancient foodways and culinary traditions. • Starch grains and phytoliths can be used to understand function of pots. • Food residues from Pictish pot sherds confirm cereals were common plant ingredients. Understanding the seasonal and daily aspects of late Roman and early medieval life in northern Britain has been hugely challenging due to a dearth of excavated sites and poor preservation of settlement fe…
Burning Matters
ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS in early-medieval northern Britain was the re-emergence of fortified enclosures and settlements. As in western England and Wales, the fort rather than the hall formed the most prominent material manifestation of power of an elite and their client group. While fortified sites dominate our knowledge of the form that central places of power and governance took in the early-medieval period in northern Britain,…
Re‐imagining Navan Fort
This article presents major discoveries from a new campaign of large‐scale multi‐method geophysical surveying, focused on Navan Fort and its environs. Alongside a re‐appraisal of excavated evidence, it offers a new model for the evolution of Navan. The large earthwork now known as Navan Fort sits alongside other iconic monuments such as Tara, Rathcroghan, Knockaulin and Cashel as one of Ireland’s so‐called provincial centres. Historical texts imp…
Warrior ideologies in first-millennium AD Europe
Assessing the ploughzone
Thousands of archaeological sites in Europe lie under the ploughzone. Previous studies and experiments have highlighted the impact that arable agriculture has on the preservation of archaeological sites, yet the ploughzone has also been shown in some cases to preserve important information. In this study, the value of the ploughzone was assessed through metal detecting and through sieving of the ploughsoil directly over one of the most productive…
On the genetic affiliations of Timucua, an indigenous language of Florida
Noble G. Kingsley. On the genetic affiliations of Timucua, an indigenous language of Florida. In: Journal de la Société des Américanistes. Tome 54 n°2, 1965. pp. 359-376
Man's Many Voices
Ethnology
Jan Harding Henge Monuments of the British Isles
Harnessing the waves
Big Enclosures
Palisaded enclosures were huge enclosed spaces with timber boundaries found across Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia in the Neolithic. Five such sites have been identified in Scotland dating to the later Neolithic, four of which have been excavated to varying degrees. These sites form the main focus of this paper, which draws in particular on interim results from the authors' excavations at Forteviot, Perth and Kinross, during 2007–2009. The pali…
Ritual and remembrance at a prehistoric ceremonial complex in central Scotland
Aerial photography and excavations have brought to notice a major prehistoric ceremonial complex in central Scotland comparable to Stonehenge, although largely built in earth and timber. Beginning, like Stonehenge, as a cremation cemetery, it launched its monumentality by means of an immense circle of tree trunks, and developed it with smaller circles of posts and an earth bank (henge). A change of political mood in the Early Bronze Age is marked…
Excavations at a Multi-period Site at Greenbogs, Aberdeenshire, Scotland and the Four-post Timber Architecture Tradition of Late Neolithic Britain and Ireland
This report outlines the unexpected discovery of a group of Late Neolithic structures at Greenbogs, Monymusk in Aberdeenshire, along with a series of later prehistoric features in the mid-1990s. Recent radiocarbon dating shows that two four-post timber structures found here date to the period 2890–2490 cal bc . These were found in association with a range of other features including an oval structure and diffuse areas of burning. The closest para…
Between prehistory and history
The development of small-scale kingdoms in the post-Roman world of northwestern Europe is a key stage in the subsequent emergence of medieval states. Recent excavations at Rhynie in north-eastern Scotland have thrown important light on the emergence of one such kingdom, that of the Picts. Enclosures, sculptured 'symbol stones' and long-distance luxury imports identify Rhynie as a place of growing importance during the fifth to sixth centuries AD.…
Crannogs, castles and lordly residences
This article outlines new research into the crannogs of north-east Scotland and dating of two crannogs in Loch Kinord, Upper Deeside, Aberdeenshire. The dating of the crannogs in Loch Kinord represents the first direct dating evidence for crannogs in the north-east of Scotland and indicates construction episodes at these crannogs in the last centuries of the first millennium ad. The radiocarbon dates, alongside various historic records, suggest t…
The land before symbol stones
This article outlines the results of two related but distinct aspects of fieldwork: a geophysical survey of the Rhynie cropmark complex and a small targeted excavation conducted in 2005–6, which are both part of the Rhynie Environs Archaeological Project (REAP). The geophysical surveys included a substantial gradiometer and a smaller resistivity survey that aimed to characterise and explore the extent and survival of archaeology around the Craw S…
The Bennachie Colony
(Re)discovering the Gaulcross hoard
Woodland in the Neolithic of Northern Europe
Early Medieval Shellfish Exploitation in Northwest Europe
Coastal shell middens represent a well-known element of the archaeological record of island and coastal regions across the world and shellfish have been an important resource for subsistence since the mid Holocene. However, the factors that influence shellfishing remain poorly understood and in many regions investigations into the role of shellfish gathering often have remained focused on prehistoric examples to the detriment of shell middens of …
Early medieval shellfish gathering at the Sands of Forvie, Aberdeenshire
From 2010 to 2014, extensive shell middens were excavated at the Sands of Forvie, Aberdeenshire, and the wider landscape explored through a programme of soil and geophysical survey. The middens were dated to the 1st millennium AD and appear to represent intensive gathering and cooking of shellfish, particularly mussels. To date, few middens of the scale of the Forvie examples have been identified in Scotland, but the middens share some parallels …
Archaeological excavations at Nethermills Farm, Deeside, 1978–81
The Mesolithic site of Nethermills Farm, Crathes, Banchory, was identified from fieldwalking that took place between 1973 and 1977 and it was excavated between 1978 and 1981 under the direction of James Kenworthy. Kenworthy interpreted the site as a ‘hunter-gatherer camp’ with probable evidence for a circular structure, but publication of the excavation was never completed. This paper draws on specialist work undertaken immediately after excavati…
Cremation Practices and the Creation of Monument Complexes
Around the beginning of the 3rd millennium cal bc a cremation cemetery was established at Forteviot, central Scotland. This place went on to become one of the largest monument complexes identified in Mainland Scotland, with the construction of a palisaded enclosure, timber structures, and a series of henge monuments and other enclosures. The cemetery was established between 3080 and 2900 cal bc , probably in the 30th century cal bc , which is con…
The Monumental Cemeteries of Northern Pictland
Peer reviewed
Assessing the ploughzone
Thousands of archaeological sites in Europe lie under the ploughzone. Previous studies and experiments have highlighted the impact that arable agriculture has on the preservation of archaeological sites, yet the ploughzone has also been shown in some cases to preserve important information. In this study, the value of the ploughzone was assessed through metal detecting and through sieving of the ploughsoil directly over one of the most productive…
A new chronology for crannogs in north-east Scotland
This article presents the results of a programme of investigation which aimed to construct a more detailed understanding of the character and chronology of crannog occupation in north-east Scotland, targeting a series of sites across the region. The emerging pattern revealed through fieldwork in the region shows broad similarities to the existing corpus of data from crannogs in other parts of the country. Crannogs in north-east Scotland now show …
Little House in the Mountains? A small Mesolithic structure from the Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland
The development of the Pictish symbol system
The date of unique symbolic carvings, from various contexts across north and east Scotland, has been debated for over a century. Excavations at key sites and direct dating of engraved bone artefacts have allowed for a more precise chronology, extending from the third/fourth centuries AD, broadly contemporaneous with other non-vernacular scripts developed beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire, to the ninth century AD. These symbols were probabl…
Kinneddar
The early Christian sculpture from Kinneddar has long been noted as a major assemblage. New survey work by the University of Aberdeen and AOC Archaeology has identified a large vallum enclosure around the site that was renewed on at least one occasion. The vallum enclosures surrounded an area of up to 8.6ha, and the groundplan presents striking resemblances to other major ecclesiastical sites, particularly Iona. Evaluative excavations instigated …
A Powerful Place of Pictland
Many thanks to the students, staff and volunteers who have made Rhynie 2011–17 possible and to Rhynie Woman who have brought so much to the community element of the project. Fieldwork at Rhynie has been funded by the University of Aberdeen Development Trust, British Academy, Historic Environment Scotland, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and Aberdeenshire Council Archaeology Service. The writing …
Archaeology (40 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (32 works) · History (32 works) · Geography (28 works) · History (23 works) · Excavation (19 works) · Ancient history (18 works) · Art (16 works) · Context (archaeology (11 works) · Prehistory (11 works)