Have you tried the search term "Neolithic"? Wikipedia has a fairly good list of pre-Bronze-Age archaeological sites in Scotland here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_prehistoric_Scotland#Neolithic. The one I had heard of before was the Tomb of the Eagles, which seems to be pretty well-studied.
Editing to add: as Ashindk pointed out, there are no names and no concrete information about beliefs and practices from these eras. There are only conjectures based on the remains of material culture.
Thank-you - especially for the Tomb of the Eagles; a chambered cairn works well with my scenario and I've already got a sea-eagle appearing in the story!
The Tomb of the Eagles is amazing! One of the highlights of my trip to Orkney, along with Skara Brae. This website http://www.orkneyjar.com/ has long been a favourite of mine.
I visited Orkney back when dinosaurs roamed there, and loved it too; before half of the stuff that's now visible had been found, so I missed out on TotE, but have visited chambered cairns elsewhere so I've definitely got a picture in my head. I love the website too; lots to look at - though most of the place-names appear to be Norn, bah!
The late Hallstatt culture and the Atlantic bronze age culture were the origin of the celts, so you should be anle to use elements of early celtic culture. The problem with the data you mention is that its preservation is heavily dependant on written sources, and we don't have those for northern Europe at the time you're interested in. Same goes for neolithic cultures.
You'd probably like to read Rodney Castleden's Britain 3000 BC. And a couple of older books about it: Aubrey Burl's Rites of the Gods and Ronald Hutton's Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles
Even older, a prehistorian once wrote The Bird Gods of Ancient Europe based on the idea that birds as a class were considered holy. I think he quoted an old poem mentioning the spring sun's cuckoo cloak, in the Stonehenge area.
Also of that area, Jaquetta Hawkes says the pre-IE name for 'springing water' was 'Auberri'; and I've heard 'Thames' is pre-IE.
The substrates were fascinating, thank-you so much! And OMG Bran was one of them? I can use that in another story! I've ordered the Castleden through ILL too - thanks for the rec.
Had a quick google and the Bronze Age remains at Edinburgh seem to be as - I dunno - elusive, insubstantial? as the rest of Bronze Age Scotland. Which is not out of keeping with what I'm trying to write. Perhaps I should take it as an endorsement of my premise!
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Editing to add: as Ashindk pointed out, there are no names and no concrete information about beliefs and practices from these eras. There are only conjectures based on the remains of material culture.
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A couple of wiki articles you might like to read, anyway, (and probably have) are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goidelic_substrate_hypothesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordwestblock
You'd probably like to read Rodney Castleden's Britain 3000 BC. And a couple of older books about it: Aubrey Burl's Rites of the Gods and Ronald Hutton's Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles
Even older, a prehistorian once wrote The Bird Gods of Ancient Europe based on the idea that birds as a class were considered holy. I think he quoted an old poem mentioning the spring sun's cuckoo cloak, in the Stonehenge area.
Also of that area, Jaquetta Hawkes says the pre-IE name for 'springing water' was 'Auberri'; and I've heard 'Thames' is pre-IE.
edited to add Ancient Scotland byPJ Ashmore
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The periods you are looking at would be Neolithic and Bronze Age, so try them when googling.
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