Scotland in Pagan Times: The Iron Age

Joseph Anderson (1832-1916), curator of the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, delivered the Rhind lectures of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland from 1879 to 1882 as a sequence on the ancient history of Scotland, and subsequently published them in book form. This highly illustrated book on the Iron Age in Scotland was published in 1883. The first two lectures consider types of burial, pagan and Christian (with some pagan elements surviving into the later period), and the later burial customs of the pagan Vikings of Orkney and Shetland, with their Scandinavian associations. A lecture on Celtic art is followed by consideration of brochs – the round, drystone-walled structures of the Iron Age, unique to Scotland – along with their architecture and their function as revealed by discoveries during excavation. A final chapter examines lake-dwellings, hill-forts, and earth-houses. Anderson’s other Rhind lectures are also reissued in this series.