OUR UNDERSTANDING of the nature of late and post-Roman central places of northern Britain has been hindered by the lack of historical sources and the limited scale of archaeological investigation. New work at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (NJ 49749 26345), has begun to redress this through extensive excavation and landscape survey. This has revealed a Pictish central place of the 4th to 6th centuries ad that has European connections through material culture, iconography and site character. In addition to reviewing the place-name and historical context, this article outlines preliminary reflections on five seasons of excavation and survey in the Rhynie landscape. The article also provides a detailed consideration of chronology, including radiocarbon dating and Bayesian statistical analysis. The results reveal the multi-faceted nature of a major, non-hillfort elite complex of Pictland that comprised a high-status residence with cult dimensions, a major centre for production and exchange, and a contemporary cemetery. A series of sculptured stones stood in association with the settlement and cemetery and the iconography of the stones, along with the wider archaeological evidence, provides a rich dataset for a renewed consideration of the central places of early medieval northern Britain with broader implications for the nature of power and rulership in late and post-Roman Europe.

中文翻译：

---

皮克特兰的强大之地：4 至 6 世纪权力中心的跨学科视角

由于缺乏历史资料和考古调查的规模有限，我们对不列颠北部晚期和后罗马中心地区性质的理解受到阻碍。苏格兰阿伯丁郡 Rhynie 的新工作 (NJ 49749 26345) 已开始通过广泛的挖掘和景观调查来解决这一问题。这揭示了公元 4 至 6 世纪的皮克特中心地点，它通过物质文化、图像和场地特征与欧洲联系起来。除了回顾地名和历史背景外，本文还概述了对瑞尼景观五个季节的发掘和调查的初步思考。文章还详细考虑了年代学，包括放射性碳测年和贝叶斯统计分析。结果揭示了一个专业的多面性，皮克特兰的非希尔福特精英建筑群，包括一个具有崇拜规模的高级住宅、一个主要的生产和交流中心以及一个当代墓地。一系列与定居点和墓地相关的雕刻石头和石头的图像，以及更广泛的考古证据，为重新考虑中世纪早期英国北部的中心地点提供了丰富的数据集，对自然有更广泛的影响罗马晚期和后欧洲的权力和统治。