Beyond Decline: Heathland and the Dynamics of Cultural and Environmental Change in Bronze Age Orkney

In this paper, we explore how Enlightenment thinking might have influenced environmental archaeological narratives about heathland development, and human interactions with heathlands, using Orkney as a case study. The archaeological record of Orkney has often been interpreted as indicating a cultural or economic ‘decline’ at the Neolithic-Bronze Age transition, which has been linked with spread of heathland across a formerly more ‘productive’ agricultural landscape in response to climatic deterioration. A review of available palaeoenvironmental and archaeological data from the islands indicates continuity of activity across the Neolithic-Bronze Age transition rather than abandonment of areas which might be deemed more ‘marginal’. There are clear changes in the way that land was exploited between the Neolithic and Bronze Age in Orkney, which were likely the result of changes in social organisation and cosmological beliefs in combination with adaptation to changing environmental conditions, rather than a response to a reduction in the resource base related to increasing heathland. We argue that development of heathland in Orkney did not constrain human activity, but rather enabled a range of new possibilities in both ritual and practical terms, with heathlands being sites of sustainable traditional practices that enabled resilience to environmental or cultural change. Challenging the Enlightenment reframing of heathlands as unproductive ‘waste’ through ongoing exploration of the palaeoecological and archaeological records may help encourage restoration of traditional farming practices as part of sustainable management and conservation of these ecosystems.