Early Scottish Monasteries and Prehistory: A Preliminary Dialogue

Abstract

Reflecting on the diversity of monastic attributes found in the east and west of Britain, the author proposes that prehistoric ritual practice was influential on monastic form. An argument is advanced that this was not based solely on inspiration from the landscape, nor on conservative tradition, but on the intellectual reconciliation of Christian and non-Christian ideas, with disparate results that account for the differences in monumentality. Among more general matters tentatively credited with a prehistoric root are the cult of relics, the tonsure and the date of Easter.