Landscape with lake dwellings : The crannogs of Scotland

Since the concept of prehistoric Lake Villages fell from favour, interest in lake/lakeshore sites in Britain has been slight. This essay is set to revive it. In it, Ian Morrison draws on two decades of work (much of it from the air and from under the water) on surveying crannogs in Lochs Awe and Tay, and on reinterpreting
19th- and early 20th- century excavation reports in the light of new findings. He and his fellow workers have literally put man-made islands back on the archaeological map.
Dr Morrison tells what has been accomplished to date; uses that information to sketch a tentative taxonomy of crannog types; considers their possible uses; and attempts to relate their sites to the agricultural potential of the adjacent land.
For the benefit of those who must now surely continue and extend this pioneering work, the author describes the principal techniques that, once aerial photography has pinpointed wholly submerged islands, have been devised to permit accurate underwater survey work and, indeed, excavation.
The book is richly illustrated, principally with Dr Morrison's own drawings, but also with plates both in monochrome and colour.