Searching for the Scottish Late Upper Palaeolithic: A case study from Nethermills Farm, Aberdeenshire
Keywords:
Scotland, lithic artefacts, Late Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, methodology
Abstract
In connection with the recent examination, cataloguing and discussion of approximately 30,000 mainly Mesolithic lithic artefacts from Nethermills Farm at Banchory in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, excavated by the late James Kenworthy in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a small number of finds were identified as almost certainly whole or fragmented Late Upper Palaeolithic lithic artefacts, and others as pieces likely to date to this period. The Nethermills flint objects add to a growing list of Late Upper Palaeolithic sites and implements identified across Scotland, including tanged and other points, scrapers, and truncated pieces from Howburn in South Lanarkshire and Kilmelfort Cave on the Scottish west-coast, as well as tanged and other points from the Western and Northern Isles, with eastern Scotland so far having yielded none. On the basis of this case study, the authors suggest an approach for the continued search for Late-Glacial settlers in Scotland in general, as well as for further investigation of the large Nethermills Farm assemblage. The proposed approach suggests that we focus not only on diagnostic tool forms (in particular, tanged and backed points), which have been the focus of Scottish Late Upper Palaeolithic research thus far, but also include other chronologically significant elements, such as diagnostic technological attributes and full operational schemas.
References
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Saville, A. 2008, The beginning of the later Mesolithic in Scotland. In: Man – Millennia – Environment: Studies in Honour of Romuald Schild (Z. Sulgostowska, Z. & A.J. Tomaszewski, A.J., eEds.). Polish Academy of Sciences Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Warsaw: p. 207-213.
Saville, A., & Ballin, T.B. 2009, Upper Palaeolithic evidence from Kilmelfort Cave, Argyll: A re-evaluation of the lithic assemblage. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 139, 9-45. doi:10.5284/1000184
Spinney L. 2012, The lost world of Doggerland. National Geographic, 222: 132-143.
Sturt, F., Garrow, D., & Bradley, S. 2013, New models of north-west European paleogeography and inundation. Journal of Archaeological Science, 40(11): 3963-76. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2013.05.023
Terberger, T. 2006,: From the First Humans to the Mesolithic Hunters in the Northern German Lowlands - Current Results and Trends. In: Across the western Baltic (K. Møller Hansen & Buck Pedersen, K., eEds.). Sydsjællands Museums Publikationer Vol. 1. Sydsjællands Museum, Vordingborg: p. 23-56.
Terberger, T. & Eriksen, B.V. (eEds.) 2004,: Hunters in a Changing World. Environment and Archaeology of the Pleistocene - Holocene Transition (c. 11000 - 9000 B.C.) in Northern Central Europe. Workshop of the U.I.S.P.P.-Commission XXXII at Greifswald in September 2002. Internationale Archäologie, Bd. 5. Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH, Rahden/Westf.,. 270 p.
Weber, M.-J. 2012,: From technology to tradition - rRe-evaluating the Hamburgian-Magdalenian relationship. Untersuchungen und Materialien zur Steinzeit in Schleswig-Holstein und im Ostseeraum Vol. 5. Wachholtz, Neumünster., 252 p.
Wickham-Jones C.R., Kenworthy J.B., Gould, A. MacGregor G. & Noble G. in press:, Archaeological Excavations at Nethermills Farm, Deeside, 1978-81. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 146:, 46 p.
Ballin, T.B. (2013), The lithic assemblage from Nethermills Farm, Banchory, Aberdeenshire. Unpublished report, Aberdeen University, Aberdeen, 46 p.
Ballin, T.B. 2016, Rising waters and processes of material cultural diversification and unification – the flooding of Doggerland and its effect on NW European prehistoric populations between c. 13,000 and 1,500 cal BC. Journal of Quaternery Science, 32(2): 329-339. doi:10.1002/jqs.2834
Ballin, T.B., & Bjerck, H.B. 2016, Lost and found twice: Discussion of an early post-glacial single-edged tanged point from Brodgar on Orkney, Scotland. Journal of Lithic Studies, 3(1): 31-50. doi:10.2218/jls.v3i1.1393
Ballin, T.B. & Saville, A. 2003, An Ahrensburgian-type tanged point from Shieldaig, Wester Ross, Scotland, and its implications. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 22(2): 115-131. doi:10.1111/1468-0092.t01-1-00001
Ballin, T.B., Saville, A., Tipping, R., & Ward, T. 2010, An Upper Palaeolithic Flint and Chert Assemblage from Howburn Farm, South Lanarkshire, Scotland: First Results. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 29(4): 323-360. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0092.2010.00352.x
Clark, J.G.D. 1954, Excavations at Starr Carr. An Early Mesolithic Site at Seamer near Scarborough, Yorkshire. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 200 p.
Coles, J.M. 1971, The Early Settlement of Scotland: Excavations at Morton, Fife. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 37: 284-366. doi:10.1017/S0079497X00012688
Fitch, S., Gaffney, V. & Thomson, K. 2007, In Sight of Doggerland: From speculative survey to landscape exploration. Internet Archaeology, 22. Retrieved 09 March 2017. http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue22/3/toc.html (accessed 09.03.2017) doi:10.11141/ia.22.3
Fraser, S.M., Noble, G., Warren G. & Wickham-Jones C.R. 2015, Upper Dee Tributaries Project. Discovery and Excavation in Scotland, 2015: 15-16.
Grimm, S.B. & Weber, M.-J. 2008: The chronological framework of the Hamburgian in the light of old and new 14C dates. Quartär, 55:, 17-40. doi:10.7485/QU55_02
Grimm, S., Skov Jensen, D. & Weber, M.-J. 2012, A lot of good points – Havelte points in the context of Late Glacial tanged points in Northwestern Europe. In: A mind set on flint. Studies in honour of Dick Stapert (M.J.L.T. Niekus, R.N.E. Barton, M. Street & T. Terberger, Eds.), Groningen Archaeological Studies 16. Groningen, Groningen Institute of Archaeology, Groningen: p. 251-266.
Jacobi, R.M. 2004, The Late Upper Palaeolithic Lithic Collection from Gough's Cave, Cheddar, Somerset, and Human Use of the Cave. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 70: 1-92. doi:10.1017/S0079497X00001110
Livens, R.G. 1956, Three tanged flint points from Scotland. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 89: 438-43. doi:10.5284/1000184
Madsen, B. 1992, Hamburgkulturens flintteknologi i Jels (The flint technology of the Hamburgian sites at Jels). In: Istidsjægere ved Jelssøerne. Hamburgkulturen i Danmark (Ice Age hunters by the Jels Lakes and the Danish Hamburgian) (J. Holm & F. Rieck). Skrifter fra Museumsrådet for Sønderjyllands Amt Vol. 5. Haderslev, Haderslev Museum, Haderslev: p. 93-131. (in Danish, summary in English) (“The flint technology of the Hamburgian sites at Jels” In: Ice Age hunters by the Jels Lakes and the Danish Hamburgian”)
Mithen, S., Wicks, K., Pirie, A., Riede, F., Lane, C., Banjera, V., Cullen, V., Gittins, M. & Pankhurst, N. 2015, A Lateglacial archaeological site in the far north-west.of Europe at Rubha Port an t-Seilich, Isle of Islay, western Scotland: Ahrensburrgain-style artefacts, absolute dating and geoarchaeology, Journal of Quaternary Science, 30 (5): 396-416. doi:10.1002/jqs.2781.
Pettitt, P. 2008: The British Upper Palaeolithic. In: Prehistoric Britain (J. Pollard, eEd.). Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology,. Malden (MA), Blackwell Publishing, Malden (MA): p. 18-57.
Pettitt, P. & White, M. 2012: The British Palaeolithic. Hominin societies at the edge of the Pleistocene world. Routledge Archaeology of Northern Europe,. London, Routledge, London,. 592 p.
Saville, A. 2004, The Material Culture of Mesolithic Scotland. In: Mesolithic Scotland and its Neighbours. The Early Holocene Prehistory of Scotland, its British and Irish Context, and some Northern European Perspectives (A. Saville, ed.). Edinburgh, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh: p. 185-220.
Saville, A. 2008, The beginning of the later Mesolithic in Scotland. In: Man – Millennia – Environment: Studies in Honour of Romuald Schild (Z. Sulgostowska, Z. & A.J. Tomaszewski, A.J., eEds.). Polish Academy of Sciences Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Warsaw: p. 207-213.
Saville, A., & Ballin, T.B. 2009, Upper Palaeolithic evidence from Kilmelfort Cave, Argyll: A re-evaluation of the lithic assemblage. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 139, 9-45. doi:10.5284/1000184
Spinney L. 2012, The lost world of Doggerland. National Geographic, 222: 132-143.
Sturt, F., Garrow, D., & Bradley, S. 2013, New models of north-west European paleogeography and inundation. Journal of Archaeological Science, 40(11): 3963-76. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2013.05.023
Terberger, T. 2006,: From the First Humans to the Mesolithic Hunters in the Northern German Lowlands - Current Results and Trends. In: Across the western Baltic (K. Møller Hansen & Buck Pedersen, K., eEds.). Sydsjællands Museums Publikationer Vol. 1. Sydsjællands Museum, Vordingborg: p. 23-56.
Terberger, T. & Eriksen, B.V. (eEds.) 2004,: Hunters in a Changing World. Environment and Archaeology of the Pleistocene - Holocene Transition (c. 11000 - 9000 B.C.) in Northern Central Europe. Workshop of the U.I.S.P.P.-Commission XXXII at Greifswald in September 2002. Internationale Archäologie, Bd. 5. Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH, Rahden/Westf.,. 270 p.
Weber, M.-J. 2012,: From technology to tradition - rRe-evaluating the Hamburgian-Magdalenian relationship. Untersuchungen und Materialien zur Steinzeit in Schleswig-Holstein und im Ostseeraum Vol. 5. Wachholtz, Neumünster., 252 p.
Wickham-Jones C.R., Kenworthy J.B., Gould, A. MacGregor G. & Noble G. in press:, Archaeological Excavations at Nethermills Farm, Deeside, 1978-81. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 146:, 46 p.
Published
15-Mar-2017
How to Cite
Ballin, T., & Wickham-Jones, C. (2017). Searching for the Scottish Late Upper Palaeolithic: A case study from Nethermills Farm, Aberdeenshire. Journal of Lithic Studies, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.2218/jls.v4i1.1907
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