St. Kilda: stone tools, dolerite quarries and long-term survival.

St. Kilda: stone tools, dolerite quarries and long-term survival. St Kilda St Kilda may mean: St Kilda, Scotland, an archipelago in the north Atlantic off the west coast of Scotland St Kilda, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia , the little group of islands far offshore from northwestScotland, was known for its seabird subsistence in the period before itsevacuation in 1930. Recent discoveries suggest that the importance ofagriculture in the prehistoric period (before the 16th century AD) mayhave been underestimated.St Kilda and its prehistory prehistory,period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to The St Kilda archipelago lies some 60 km west of the Western Isles Western Islesor Western Islands,Scotland: see Hebrides, the. ofScotland (57 [degrees] 49 [minutes] N; 08 [degrees] 35 [minutes] W).Apparently only the main island, Hirta, has been continuously occupied;its population of 36 was evacuated in 1930, much reduced from itshighest recorded figure of 180 at the time of Martin Martin's visitin 1697 (Stell & Harman 1988: 31). The writings of Martin (1698) andvarious subsequent written accounts and photographs have revealed quitea lot about the islanders' lifeways over the period 1700-1930(Macgregor 1960; Steel 1975; Maclean 1977). The archaeology of the areamost sheltered from the Atlantic gales, around Village Bay, has beenwell documented in a recent RCAHMS RCAHMS Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland Scotland volume (Stell & Harman1988). The landscape is dominated by the ruins of 19th-centurybuildings, many of them along a 'street', the axis of the the diameter of the sphere which is perpendicular to the plane of the circle.See also: Axis village replanned and relocated in 1830. The people rented allotmentswithin the head dyke which was constructed then. There are also numerouscleitean (anglicized as 'cleits'), corbelled stone and turfbuildings used mainly for storage. Many were in place by 1697 (Martin1698: 59). There are earlier walls and banks, notably north of the19th-century houses, in the areas just above and below the 1830 headdyke (Stell & Harman 1988).The most up-to-date account of St Kilda's prehistory(effectively the period before the mid 16th century) has to rely onevidence from individual sites and finds (Cottam 1979). There are someNorse place-names, and Martin records that three churches once existedin the Village Bay area; two inscribed crosses are incorporated instanding buildings (Harman 1976-7). There is a souterrain Sou´ter`rainn. 1. A grotto or cavern under ground. , which shoulddate from probably relatively late in the Iron Age (defined broadly, inScottish terms, as the millennium centred on the BC/AD transition).Numerous 'boat-shaped' stone settings above the 1830 head dykehave been tentatively ascribed to the Bronze Age Bronze Age,period in the development of technology when metals were first used regularly in the manufacture of tools and weapons. Pure copper and bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, were used indiscriminately at first; this early period is sometimes called the (Cottam 1979: 46-8).The island of Dun is said to contain the ancient wall of what may havebeen a prehistoric 'defensive' site. This article presentsthree discoveries made in August 1994, when I was a member of aconservation work party organized by the National Trust for Scotland,present owners of these islands; they may change current perceptions ofSt Kilda's prehistory.Stone tools in the cleitsThe museum in the re-roofed House 3 contains three or four stonetools, including one described (if memory serves) as a possible bladefor a hoe hoe,usually a flat blade, variously shaped, set in a long wooden handle and used primarily for weeding and for loosening the soil. It was the first distinctly agricultural implement. The earliest hoes were forked sticks. or digging implement. Shortly after seeing this, I noticed alenticular-sectioned piece of stone protruding from the lower part ofthe turf roof of cleit 55. I picked it out, and saw that it had oncebeen part of a stone implement. A search of cleits in the vicinity soonproduced two more broken implements, this time from among the stonework stonework,term applied to various types of work—that of the lapidary who shapes, cuts, and polishes gemstones or engraves them for seals and ornaments; of the jeweler or artisan who mounts or encrusts them in gold, silver, or other metal; of the stonemason who .Speculating that a more systematic search of the cleits might produce aserviceable distribution map of these tools, I started to look furtherafield. It turned out that the average cleit in the Village Bay area wasquite likely to contain a broken implement. Soon I noticed that brokenstone implements also occurred in the walls of black-houses, stoneclearance piles and the field walls and consumption dykes of the 19thcentury [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURES 1 & 2 OMITTED].Building the cleits required a quantity of small stones, some used aschocks for the larger stones making up the walls. Among these smallstones, I could usually find one or two broken implements, noticeablebecause of their colour. Most of the area within the 1830 head dyke ison acid granophyre gran��o��phyre?n.A fine-grained granite porphyry having a groundmass with irregular intergrowths of quartz and feldspar.[German Granophyr : grano-, grano- + (Por)phyr, - a stone which appears buff to white depending onthe weather conditions. West of the House 14/House 15 boundary (roughly)the native rock is a dark blue or grey dolerite dol��er��ite?n. Chiefly BritishA dark, fine-grained igneous rock; diabase.[French dol��rite, from Greek doleros, deceitful (from its easily being mistaken for diorite) . This contrast shows upwell on the storm beach of Village Bay, the yellow-buff/blue-blacktransition occurring just east of the ramp for landing-craft[ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED]. The broken implements are made ofdolerite, and most of their find-spots are in walls and cleits made ofgranophyre.These stone implements consist of cores and flakes which have beenfinished by varying combinations of flaking and pecking or grinding toproduce tools which, in cross-section, may be relatively'rod-like' or more lenticular lenticular/len��tic��u��lar/ (len-tik��u-ler)1. pertaining to or shaped like a lens.2. pertaining to the lens of the eye.3. pertaining to the lenticular nucleus. [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURES 1& 2 OMITTED]. Pecked, somewhat blunt-looking tools are interpretableas hoe-blades or ard-tips; others, made on narrower flakes with moresecondary retouch, look more like cutting or butchering tools. Many arewell made, and symmetrical about their three axes. The implements drawnhere are about 25 cm long by about 10 cm wide in the middle. Theprovisional distribution map [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED] showsthem widely distributed Adj. 1. widely distributed - growing or occurring in many parts of the world; "a cosmopolitan herb"; "cosmopolitan in distribution"cosmopolitanbionomics, environmental science, ecology - the branch of biology concerned with the relations between organisms within the area enclosed by the 1830 head dyke,with one occurrence beyond it (cleit 145). On the steeper, rockierslopes east and west of cleit 145, the implements are apparentlynon-existent or much rarer, and a search of the stonier area west ofcleit 67 also drew a blank. (It is believed (Stell & Harman 1988: 2;Williamson & Boyd 1960: 55-66) that the zone near cleit 145 was thepre-1830 settlement zone; it is sheltered, does not intrude on Verb 1. intrude on - to intrude upon, infringe, encroach on, violate; "This new colleague invades my territory"; "The neighbors intrude on your privacy"encroach upon, obtrude upon, invade the morefertile land below, and has easy access to a good water supply.)Stone quarriesKnowing that weathered rock would not have been appropriate rawmaterial for such a well-developed lithic lith��ic?1?adj.Consisting of or relating to stone or rock.Adj. 1. lithic - of or containing lithium2. lithic - relating to or composed of stone; "lithic sandstone" industry, I began to wonderabout sources. It was not necessary to look very far. Southwest ofVillage Bay, there are extensive dolerite screes on the steep hillsidearound Clash na Bearnaich, the old name for what is now called the'Chimney', the steep and narrow grassy defile which dividesthe rock-face above the screes into two sectors, north and south[ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURES 4 & 5 OMITTED]. According to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. a recentaccount (Sutherland et al. 1984), frost-shattered debris forms a talusabove a protalus rampart, both features forming during the cold, tundraconditions of the Loch Lomond Loch Lomond (IPA pronunciation: ['lomənd]), (Scottish Gaelic Loch Laomainn) is a Scottish loch, located in both the western lowlands of Central Scotland and the southern Highlands. interstadial (11,000-10,000 b.p.). Grassyvegetation now covers the upper slopes of this 'talus', andthe downhill advance of tongues of grass has given the upper edges ofthe scree a scalloped outline [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 5 OMITTED]. Fromthe village area it appears that there are caves, filled almost to theirroofs, in the zone where the top of this grass-covered scree meets thenear-vertical rock-faces above. These 'caves' were recognizedas artificial in a local story (which, to judge from surface inspection,seems unlikely to be literally true) that islanders used them to hidefrom soldiers looking for Bonnie Prince Charlie Bonnie Prince Charlie:see Stuart, Charles Edward. (Steel 1975: 32). Infact they look very like the tops of the Neolithic quarries at GreatLangdale Great Langdale is a valley running from the town of Ambleside to the highest peaks of the Lake District in the county of Cumbria, in the northwest of England. It is often simply referred to as Langdale, the epithet Great in Cumbria (Bradley & Edmonds 1993: plate 4.10) and of site1 at Creag na Caillich, Perthshire (Edmonds et al. 1992: illus. 9).Closer inspection shows [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURES 6 & 7 OMITTED]that there have indeed been quarry-faces undercutting the dolerite here,on both sides of the Chimney. As one crosses the Chimney at the level ofthe quarries, it becomes clear that at least two rocky bluffs just abovethis level, on each side of the Chimney, have also been quarried; a tallrock pinnacle in a vertiginous ver��tig��i��nousadj.1. Affected by vertigo; dizzy.2. Tending to produce vertigo.vertiginousadjective Related to vertigo, dizzy position south of the Chimney has alsobeen sharply undercut.Vegetation prevents inspection of the debris immediately below thevisible quarry faces. Lower down, where the 'screes' are stillexposed, there are flakes and retouched pieces in the upper levels.Eroded hollows just above the upper edges of the screes disclose (whereobservation is not impeded by oil-spitting fulmar fulmar(fŭl`mər): see shearwater; petrel. fulmarAny of several species of gull-like oceanic birds in the family Procellariidae. chicks) a soil cover,with some struck flakes embedded in it, above what is clearly quarrywaste, with air spaces; the stone gives off a 'ringing' tonewhen struck. Lower down the screes, in more mixed material, it ispossible to recognize flakes and positive and negative bulbs ofpercussion, and to note in a preliminary fashion two recurrent shapesapparently belonging to an initial stage in the reduction process: largecushion-like blocks perhaps 30 cm x 20 cm x 10 cm, and thick rod-likeshapes 30 cm in length and 10 cm in diameter with one or two long flakestaken off. Some of these 'cushions' and 'rods' arefound near the base of the screes, where one might expect heaviermaterial to fall.In general, there is quarry waste, quite a lot of it grass-covered,on the upper slopes, and a higher proportion of natural talus on themid-slopes, where weathering has softened the edges of what must havebeen originally frost-fractured stones, many covered in lichens. On thescrees at the base of the slopes is a good deal of evidence forstone-working, with large flakes and cores. Presumably pre��sum��a��ble?adj.That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the disaster. the largerboulders which came to rest on the protalus rampart during the LochLomond interstadial would have provided implement-making material justas unweathered as that later detached by human agency from therock-faces above, the heavier blocks of which would also have ended upat the base of the scree.These screes have quite a complex history. In relatively recent timesthey must have provided stone for the cleits and small enclosures in thezone near their base, and perhaps also for the 1830 head dyke furtheraway. There are one or two small walled enclosures among the stones, anda relatively recent wall climbs one scree, breasting the slope at anacute angle to the contour. Clearly, in recent centuries, zones ofexposed and covered screes have not been stable; it seems that grasscover is invading both from above and below. The origin of numerousnarrow terraces or benches on the screes, running along the contour,needs further investigation.South of the screes below the rocky bluffs are several large shallowscrees, including some which originate from high up on the slopes ofMullach Sgar, above and to the side of the rock faces in which thequarries have been made. These screes include worked material; a fewsmall rock exposures, which also show signs of quarrying, protrude pro��trudev.1. To push or thrust outward.2. To jut out; project. fromamong the debris, as they do among the main central 'talus'already described, Some at least of this scree material results fromquarrying small rock exposures at or near the surface.Where the rocky bluffs die out to the north of the main screes therehas been sporadic quarrying of dolerite outcrops. Low down the slopesthere are one or two patches of weathered, lichen-covered'talus', which has been turned over to provide stone fornearby cleits. Higher up are small rock exposures which have clearlybeen quarried, with waste material streaming down the slopes below -numerous chips and some flakes and cores, a few protruding from soilexposed in section, notably by water which descends the slope at wettertimes of the year, and probably prevents the soil and grass cover fromcompletely sealing the working areas [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURES 8 & 9OMITTED]. These 'heavily bashed' rock outcrops together withthe working debris below them, exposed by water action, are among thethe most readily recognizable indications of quarrying at Clash naBearnaich. It seems that there are more of these small, individualworking sites further north at about this level on the hillside,probably extending as far as the zone where the granophyre rock ofConachair takes over. There is also 'hummocky' ground on theless steeply sloping land above the quarrying level described - that is,in the zone between the main rocky bluffs and the modern surfaced roadwhere it climbs to An Blad. This area looks like the zone of open-castworkings behind the Pike of Stickle stick��le?intr.v. stick��led, stick��ling, stick��les1. To argue or contend stubbornly, especially about trivial or petty points.2. To have or raise objections; scruple. , in Cumbria (the zone not very wellillustrated in Bradley & Edmonds 1993: plate 4.5). At Great Langdale'more than one approach to axe making was followed at thesources' (Bradley & Edmonds 1993: 102).DiscussionThe quarries and other surface workings at Clash na Bearnaich join asmall group of relatively well-preserved stone-working sites for theproduction of identifiable groups of implements, as well as filling adistributional gap in northwest Scotland (Wickham Jones 1986). Thesequarries and working sites await further study, along with theimplements for which they were developed. Morrison's recentexcavations of 'boat-shaped structures' in small cairns at AnLag Bho'n Tuath, outside and to the north of the 1830 head dyke,have produced good examples of these stone implements, including atleast one which was deep within cairn cairn,pile of stones, usually conical in shape, raised as a landmark or a memorial. In prehistoric times it was usually erected over a burial. A barrow is sometimes called a cairn. material (Morrison pers. comm.).On the basis of mainland parallels for the structures, Morrison believesthat they are probably of Bronze Age date, though confirmation isawaited.Excavations at the souterrain by Sands in 1875 and by the Keartonbrothers in 1896 (Sands 1877: 186-7; Kearton 1897: 13-16) producedseveral stone implements. Kearton was vague about the context of thefinds; his photograph shows 5-7 broken implements, found 'indigging out and restoring' the souterrain. Sands reported that thelocal people immediately recognized the implements which he found:"'Sean lamhog, sean sgian," old axe, old knife, theysaid'; he interpreted them as tools for butchering sea birds andlivestock. Sands discovered 'a large number of rude stoneimplements resembling hatchets or wedges' -a) inside the souterrain (the context is unclear);b) 'a number' of them around the 'hole in theroof' ('above the stones and under the soil'); andc) two in what he interpreted as the souterrain's midden middendungheap. .The balance of this evidence suggests that at least some of theimplements were not part of a recent deposit of field clearance stones;their numbers are greater than would be predicted by the ratio of brokendolerite implements to pieces of granophyre and fire-cracked beachpebbles in clearance dumps visible today. The use period of theimplements, then, may coincide with an 'ocgupation' phase atthe souterrain.The most obvious parallels for the stone implements are the'stone shares' made of sandstone, found in Orkney and Shetland Orkney and Shetland may refer: The Scottish island groups of Orkney and Shetland, collectively known as the Northern Isles Orkney and Shetland (UK Parliament constituency) in archaeological contexts which range from the Neolithic to the IronAge (Rees 1979; Rees in Whittle 1986). On Hirta, the range of uses forstone implements would have been relatively limited. Any wood used herewould have been driftwood, unless supplies were imported from muchfurther afield; it can hardly have been spared from the Western Isles(Bohnke 1988). Cutting and chopping tools would be needed for butcheringdomestic animals, seals, whales, etc. and for cutting leather. Many ofthese uses would require sharp flake tools, rather than the more massiveimplements which form a substantial part of the St Kilda assemblage asit appears so far. A biologically viable population of 200 or so,depending on say 40 or 50 cultivators using the requisite number ofdolerite-tipped 'hoes' in an agricultural system lastingseveral centuries - perhaps up to two milennia? - would have generated agood deal of quarry waste.Much has been written about the dependence of St Kildans on sea birdsand their eggs in recent centuries, and the feats of skill, cunning andendurance which accompanied the quest for these resources. However, theprehistory of this way of life on the St Kilda archipelago is unknown.On this tiny, vulnerable island, various factors might trigger a shifttowards increased dependence on sea birds. The pollen record (Walker1984) shows that major shifts in climate, including increasing seaspray, had a serious impact on St Kilda's vegetation. There aresuggestions that cultivation, properly organized and practised infavourable climatic conditions, could be more rewarding than wasapparent in the last days of St Kilda. In the days of Martin Martin (c.1700) St Kilda had the finest, earliest-ripening barley in the WesternIsles, and it was actually exported, at a time when the local populationwas at its recorded maximum of c. 180 (Steel 1975: 80); although perhapsMartin's statements about barley yields of between sixteen- andtwenty-fold (Martin 1698: 18) should be taken (almost literally in thiscase) with a pinch of salt. A great deal was known about using manureand making compost (see Steel 1975: 81 for a brief summary). In the mid18th century, Kenneth Macaulay commented on the quality of the grazingand on the quantity and richness of the milk, and the potential of thearable land ('rendered extremely fertile by the singular husbandryof very judicious husbandmen'); he thought that the island shouldbe able to support about 300 people (1764: 29-30, 33-4, 196). As heshrewdly remarked: 'the inhabitants of St Kilda were much morenumerous heretofore, than they are at present. Whether this visibledecrease is to be resolved wholly into physical causes, or whether itought to be imputed to political ones in part, I shall notdetermine...'Earlier head-dykesThe third discovery of my 1994 visit lends some credence to thenotion that agriculture may have been well-organized in'prehistoric' times. On the loose map included with theexcellent volume produced by the RCHAMS, The buildings of St Kilda(Stell & Harman 1988), a number of 'old tracks' are markedin the area on the eastern side of Village Bay, both just above and justbelow the 1830 head dyke. It seems that this interpretation of the fieldevidence (Stell & Harman 1988: 2, 17) is based on the concept - wellenough supported in itself - of a pre-1830 village with buildings laidout on two sides of a 'street'. These 'old tracks'consist of narrow linear zones, cleared of stones, running along thehillside. I interpret them, however, as the remains of pre-1830 headdykes, narrow terraces quarried for stone and levelled off, the headdykes being built along their front edges and subsequently abandonedand/or robbed out [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED]. The RCAHMS planmarks orthostats which remain along these front edges. It is hard toimagine how or why the barefoot and wheel-less early St Kildans wouldhave created these features as 'tracks'. The RCAHMS map marksno plausible destinations for them, they have no recognizabledestination at their western ends, and the 'track' which runsbehind the Feather Store and the gun at the extreme southeast end of thesettlement leads straight on to the cliff-top. For much of the easternsector of the village, the 'old tracks' actually indicate thecourses of two pre-1830 head dykes. The original character of the lowerof these is not very clear between cleits 163 and 34; it seems to havefollowed pre-existing irregular boundaries. That the two old head dykeswere successive, with the upper one built later, is shown by the factthat, between cleits 150 and 162, the parcel defined by the upper headdyke was sub-divided, and two at least of the sub-dividing walls slightthe flat zone behind the lower head dyke. Furthermore, in the area justabove cleits 151 and 152 is at least one old head-dyke course of thiskind, which is not marked on the RCAHMS map.West of cleits 114 and 115 is a wet zone in which peat has been cutand perhaps any stones encountered taken away. Further west, on theother side of Abhainn Mor, the head-dyke line is continued by anorthostatic orthostatic/or��tho��stat��ic/ (or?tho-stat��ik) pertaining to or caused by standing erect. or��tho��stat��icadj.Relating to or caused by standing upright, as hypertension. wall running along the contour; it is cut by the modern roadabout 150 m north of the point where the road comes through the 1830head dyke. West of the western sector of the 1830 head dyke there aretraces of the course of at least one robbed-out old head dyke, and it isfairly clear that older land enclosure around Village Bay would haveincorporated the irregular parcels which run along the western side ofthe bay as far as Abhainn Ruaival, including the area of the site of StBriannon's church. Land has evidently been lost to the sea here.Thus it seems that more land in the Bay area was formerly enclosedthan was the case in 1830; this land was defined by a head dyke built inpart with orthostatic walling after careful quarrying and levelling hadtaken place. It was mostly a free-standing structure, although in parts,notably above Tobar Childa, above Houses 3 to 6 and on the west side,the head dyke may have been defined by the upper edges of parcels ofland already enclosed. In the eastern zone, extending from cleits 10 to140, later head dykes were built higher up the slope, again mostly as'free-standing' structures but also in places takingpre-established parcels into account. It looks very much as if buildingthese head dykes was a communal project to support an evidentlywell-organized farming system with a strong communal orientation (as wasthe case for the system which survived into recorded history). Theseearly head dykes, as yet undated un��dat��ed?adj.1. Not marked with or showing a date: an undated letter; an undated portrait.2. , are reminiscent of the inmark/utmarkdistinction made by the Scandinavians in Scotland, of the 'ringgarths' of Cumbria (Denyer 1991) and the 'Acre Wall'built at the upper edge of the dale-side cow pastures in UpperSwaledale, North Yorkshire, an area of pro-Conquest Norse settlement.ConclusionThe dolerite industry supplements the numerous 'boat-shapedstructures' beyond the Hirta head dyke in implying the presence ofa viable later Bronze Age community on these islands, establishedsometime in the 2nd millennium BC, although conclusive dating evidenceis still awaited. The effect is to strengthen our impression of thecompetence and confidence of the Bronze Age peoples of northern Scotlandin seamanship sea��man��ship?n.Skill in navigating or managing a boat or ship.seamanshipNounskill in navigating and operating a shipNoun 1. , craft skills and, not least, social interaction amongremote communities separated or linked by large expanses of sea. Furtherwork may establish whether implements of Hirta dolerite were exported,whether the parallels with Orkney and Shetland imply cultural links withthe Northern Isles and whether the apparent absence of implements ofHirta dolerite on the Western Isles is confirmed. Specialists in theprehistoric stone-working industries of Scotland, and recent excavators,should consider whether the provenance of all the igneous ig��ne��ous?adj.1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of fire.2. Geologya. Formed by solidification from a molten state. Used of rocks.b. Of or relating to rock so formed; pyrogenic. stoneencountered has been satisfactorily accounted for. One or two pieces ofworked stone, in good archaeological contexts, could be critical to ourunderstanding of prehistoric cultural connections. It will also beimportant to find out how late the use of stone persisted on Hirta,allowing its inhabitants to remain independent of imported metalwork asnecessary; and when dependence on externally supplied iron tools becameestablished.Charles Maclean (1977: 23-4) wrote that 'the history of the StKildans is essentially the story of a bird culture', Perhaps thatis true for most of the period of recorded history. But we now see thatthe early St Kildans had an organized agrarian landscape long beforeNeil Mackenzie re-organized it in 1830, and probably an agrarian systemwhich was in principle sustainable over long time-periods. Therecognition of possible earlier 'ring garths' may indicatethat the same can be said of the later prehistoric (Norse?) period too.On the Western Isles of Scotland, coastal erosion, the development ofthe machair and the growth of peat have made it hard to reconstruct thelandscape of the late prehistoric and Norse communities which may havebeen ancestral to the one on Hirta. This small island at the outermost out��er��most?adj.Most distant from the center or inside; outmost.outermostAdjectivefurthest from the centre or middleAdj. 1. edge of Europe, a place which must always have been socially marginal,may be just the periphery we need to help us to understand the core.Acknowledgements. I wish to thank Alex Morrison and Mark Edmonds fordiscussing this topic with me, Robin Turner for various kinds of help,Patrick Foster for producing the drawings (those of the implements frommy own imperfect originals), Meg Buchanan for allowing me to inspect andphotograph the stone implements excavated on St Kilda in the KelvingroveMuseum (Glasgow) and Mireille Fleming for developing and printing myphotographs.ReferencesBOHNKE, S.J.P. 1988. Vegetation and habitation HABITATION, civil law. It was the right of a person to live in the house of another without prejudice to the property. 2. It differed from a usufruct in this, that the usufructuary might have applied the house to any purpose, as, a store or manufactory; whereas history of theCallanish area, Isle of Lewis, Scotland, in H.H. Birks et al. (ed.), Thecultural landscape: past, present and future: 445-61. 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