Sorry, John, I should not have been so flippant.
However, the serious point is that in the twelfth-century Highlanders were living in a post-Norman Conquest world, while their eighteenth-century descendants were contemporaries of the Industrial Revolution, even if this is not directly reflected in the archaeology.
Mary is absolutely right - it is futile to try to define a comprehensive national set of period terms that can be applied in a regional context - and I agree wholeheartedly that local terms of reference should be valued.
I hope I have not given the impression that BIAB's period chronology was a proposed standard list of period definitions. It is certainly not intended to be used in that way - it was developed specifically for use in a hard-copy reference source that covers the whole of the UK and Ireland and is inevitably a compromise solution. So far, this FISHEN exercise has been very helpful in identifying some of the limitations of the BIAB scheme, but it is significant that these have come to light because the periods are expressed in terms of calendar dates.
Surely, the common denominator Mary seeks is also calendar date. Regional chronologies that are expressed by date ranges are intrinsically related to any other dated chronology anywhere in the world. Interoperability of database can easily be achieved as long as periods are expressed by numerical date parameters.
I wonder - the demise of the MacLeods of Lewis - could it possibly be related to factors such as trading links or something? If so, it would show that an apparently local chronology could have wider relevance.
Jeremy
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Jeremy Oetgen (Mr)
British and Irish Archaeological Bibliography
c/o The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH, England.
Tel: +(44)(0)20 7969 5444
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