the UK have all contributed to the continuation of Scottish culture and national identity since the 1707 incorporating union with England. In 1999, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. The head of the Scottish Government is the first minister, who is supported by the deputy first minister. Scotland is represented in the United Kingdom Parliament by 59 members of parliament (MPs). It is also a member of the British–Irish Council, sending five members of the Scottish Parliament to the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly, as well as being part of the Heads of Government Council, represented by the first minister, and the Inter-ministerial Standing Committee Council, represented by relevant cabinet secretaries and ministers in areas relating to education, finance and economy, environment and trade and investment. Etymology Scotland comes from , the Latin name for the Gaels. Philip Freeman has speculated on the likelihood of a group of raiders adopting a name from an Indo-European root, *skot, citing the parallel in Greek (), meaning "darkness, gloom". The Late Latin word ('land of the Gaels') was initially used to refer to Ireland, and likewise in early Old English was used for Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to (Gaelic-speaking) Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, both derived from the Gaelic . The use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Prehistory Repeated glaciations, which covered the entire land mass of modern Scotland, destroyed any traces of human habitation that may have existed before the Mesolithic period. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, as the ice sheet retreated after the last glaciation. At the time, Scotland was covered in forests, had more bog-land, and the main form of transport was by water. These settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period. Neolithic habitation, burial, and ritual sites are particularly common and well preserved in the Northern Isles and Western Isles, where a lack of trees led to most structures being