This is an attempt to rewrite the article from scratch.
The resettlement of Scotland after the last Ice Age began around 10,000 years ago, but recorded history did not begin until Classical Antiquity, 8,000 years later, with the conquest of Britannia by the Roman Empire in the 1st century.
In the millennia between the first settlers and the Romans there were a great many changes as can be seen in the archaeological record of Prehistoric Scotland. Forests were cleared on a large scale from the Neolithic onwards, so that the landscape of Scotland by the time of the Bronze Age may well have been similar to that of the Middle Ages. It is a matter of conjecture to whether changes in material culture seen in the record are an artefact of significant migration or not. Attempts to study the history of human population in the Britain and Ireland using genetic techniques have, to date, thrown very little light on migrations in prehistoric times. Insofar as any conclusion can be drawn from archaeology and genetics, it would appear to be the case that Scotland drew influences and migrants from Atlantic Europe as well as from Northern and Western Europe, while unique features, such as Iron Age brochs, show the importance of local developments.
Roman history adds but little to our knowledge of Scotland. Caledonia lay outwith the Roman Empire. It is not until the mis-named Dark Ages, after Rome, that the historical record, in the form of Irish, Welsh and Anglo-Saxon chronicles and hagiography, becomes more detailed.
In the 8th century, the Venerable Bede recorded that Scotland was inhabited by four peoples:
These were quite similar groups, and the divisions between them were ephemeral political ones, rather than linguistic or ethnic ones. It is certain that Northumbria was created from a number of minor kingdoms which retained distinct identities over centuries, Dál Riata was composed of multiple kindreds, traces of which may exist in much later periods, and it is likely that Pictish kingship was not unitary.
From the 9th century and the Viking Age comes the first large-scale migration to Scotland of which we can be certain, that of the pagan Vikings. The evidence of place-names (( onomastics) and modern studies of genetics agree with the historical record; all three show that Norse settlers had a great influence in the Northern Isles and a sizable one in Galloway, the Hebrides, Caithness and Sutherland.
Further emigrants arrived in Scotland from England, France and Flanders in the High Middle Ages. The first such know are the of Anglo-Saxon exiles, including future queen and saint Margaret, who arrived as refugees from England after the Norman Conquest. From the time of David I,
Modern:
Intro, Scotland exports people !
% | Birth | Residency | Ancestry |
Very Important | 52.4 | 30.2 | 38.9 |
Fairly Important | 30.6 | 36.8 | 36.6 |
Not Very Important | 12.2 | 23.4 | 18.6 |
Not at all Important | 3.5 | 8.3 | 4.6 |
Don’t Know/NA | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.3 |
Refers:
[[Image:NonFreeImageRemoved.svg -->|300px]] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
---|---|
United States:
United States:
New Zealand:
South Africa: |
This is an attempt to rewrite the article from scratch.
The resettlement of Scotland after the last Ice Age began around 10,000 years ago, but recorded history did not begin until Classical Antiquity, 8,000 years later, with the conquest of Britannia by the Roman Empire in the 1st century.
In the millennia between the first settlers and the Romans there were a great many changes as can be seen in the archaeological record of Prehistoric Scotland. Forests were cleared on a large scale from the Neolithic onwards, so that the landscape of Scotland by the time of the Bronze Age may well have been similar to that of the Middle Ages. It is a matter of conjecture to whether changes in material culture seen in the record are an artefact of significant migration or not. Attempts to study the history of human population in the Britain and Ireland using genetic techniques have, to date, thrown very little light on migrations in prehistoric times. Insofar as any conclusion can be drawn from archaeology and genetics, it would appear to be the case that Scotland drew influences and migrants from Atlantic Europe as well as from Northern and Western Europe, while unique features, such as Iron Age brochs, show the importance of local developments.
Roman history adds but little to our knowledge of Scotland. Caledonia lay outwith the Roman Empire. It is not until the mis-named Dark Ages, after Rome, that the historical record, in the form of Irish, Welsh and Anglo-Saxon chronicles and hagiography, becomes more detailed.
In the 8th century, the Venerable Bede recorded that Scotland was inhabited by four peoples:
These were quite similar groups, and the divisions between them were ephemeral political ones, rather than linguistic or ethnic ones. It is certain that Northumbria was created from a number of minor kingdoms which retained distinct identities over centuries, Dál Riata was composed of multiple kindreds, traces of which may exist in much later periods, and it is likely that Pictish kingship was not unitary.
From the 9th century and the Viking Age comes the first large-scale migration to Scotland of which we can be certain, that of the pagan Vikings. The evidence of place-names (( onomastics) and modern studies of genetics agree with the historical record; all three show that Norse settlers had a great influence in the Northern Isles and a sizable one in Galloway, the Hebrides, Caithness and Sutherland.
Further emigrants arrived in Scotland from England, France and Flanders in the High Middle Ages. The first such know are the of Anglo-Saxon exiles, including future queen and saint Margaret, who arrived as refugees from England after the Norman Conquest. From the time of David I,
Modern:
Intro, Scotland exports people !
% | Birth | Residency | Ancestry |
Very Important | 52.4 | 30.2 | 38.9 |
Fairly Important | 30.6 | 36.8 | 36.6 |
Not Very Important | 12.2 | 23.4 | 18.6 |
Not at all Important | 3.5 | 8.3 | 4.6 |
Don’t Know/NA | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.3 |
Refers:
[[Image:NonFreeImageRemoved.svg -->|300px]] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
---|---|
United States:
United States:
New Zealand:
South Africa: |