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Trade and technology
Long before the Roman invasion, 4000 years ago, bronze-making technology arrived from mainland Europe, possibly along the iberian connection and through the other immigration and trade routes operating at the time. Civilisation was on the rise in the middle east and trade was already important for keeping up with the latest technology. Bronze is made from copper and tin, and the two minerals were rarely found anywhere near each other. With good transport and trade links, metalworking was soon an established craft and this speeded up the tree-felling that had started in Neolithic times.
The Iron Age in began around 2500 years ago. Agriculture had begun to drift in from mainland Europe around 6000 years ago and can be tracked by the spread of the rectangular long-house (up to then, our dwellings had been round-houses). There is also archaeological evidence that the rapid conversion to agriculture led to a decline in human health. But the arrival of iron was to speed the introduction of agriculture. The new technology provided stronger ploughs, as well as tougher axes and led to inevitable improvements in weaponry used to secure and steal land to feed a growing population.
Over 2000 years later, the art of metal working would meet other innovations in North Britain in a convergence that would bring about the "advanced" world that we know today. (As a small example, the modern plough was developed in Berwickshire). But both agriculture and large-scale war would be slow to take hold in our corner of Europe; it was society that was clearly developing here. The Bronze Age and Iron Age technologies and cultures ask interesting questions about the extent of the immigration of people, set against the migration of ideas. But history shows that our bleak and windswept region was still attractive to those who were living in even harsher environments.
1200 years ago the Vikings arrived in Orkney and began to settle in the region, establishing a parliamentary assembly at Tingwall in Shetland. There is some debate about whether they killed off any original Pictish inhabitants or whether there was some accommodation with inter-marriage. (In a parallel case, genetic research in Iceland has recently proved that Icelanders are more Irish than Viking). Although they had a fierce reputation, most of the Vikings could turn their skills to farming, sailing and trade. Well organised, but with a sophisticated tribal culture, they arrived at the Isle of Man and established Tynwald, the Isle of Man parliament that is still in place today, making it one of the oldest unbroken parliaments in the world.
The Vikings also settled in Orkney and Shetland, giving the name Sutherland to the northenmost part of mainland Britain. Even more confusing to us southerners, they named both of the largest islands of Orkney and Shetland as "mainland". They sailed even further south and established a successful trading port at Dingwall, at the head of the Firth of Cromarty, not far from Inverness. Having negotiated with the Scottish chieftains, the Vikings were allocated any land that they could sail round, leading to some spectacular boat-dragging across dry land on various peninsulas, often leaving the norse place-name “Tarbet” or “drawboat” to commemorate the feat.
Around 50 years later, and even further south, the Vikings took over York, which had been developed as a city by the Romans and then the Anglo Saxons. Having mastered both agriculture and metalworking, the Vikings could lay claim to be the most “civilised” people in northern Europe. With boundless entrepreneurial energy, and the best technology they could lay their hands on, they invested heavily in their new asset to turn it into a world-class trading centre. They were, perhaps, too successful as pre-medieval city-builders, and they, too, were soon to be the subject of a take-over.
Both genetic studies and historic literature suggest the Vikings had a much greater influence on North Britain than the Romans or other invaders from the south. They were feared as warriors, but they were skirmishers and traders, rather than empire-builders. They would leave attempts at that last and dubious activity to their cousins, the Normans.