ABSTRACT
A few of the prehistoric sites were certainly occupied during the Dark Age-the Mote of Mark, Dunadd, and perhaps some crannogs in the south, many brochs and wheel-dwellings in the far north. But the relics attributable to this period are few and undecisive, and in the north it is doubtful whether the occupation continued down to the time of the Norse colonization described in the sagas.2 For the rest, the Dark Age is represented by a handful of stray ornaments and a few Early Christian chapels and gravestones that illustrate the spread of a new religion rather than the survival of old traditions. Between the prehistoric record, ending in the fourth century, and the historic an unbridged chasm yawns.
