Stone Pages - Archaeo News (Scotland)

Revealing the prehistoric origins of Scotland

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 15:14:12 +0100

Hadrian's Wall is often given the brunt of the blame for the division of Ancient Britain, but newly published archaeological research shows that the divide of Scotland and England was already underway before the Romans arrived, culturally speaking.
This has been proven through an array of brochs, duns, crannogs and souterrains, which are found widely throughout Scotland but have not been proven in northern England or further south. "The underlying implication of the settlement distribution patterns is that Iron Age societies across Scotland were open to the building and occupation of brochs, crannogs, duns and souterrains but that Iron Age societies further south were not," said GUARD Archaeologist Ronan Toolis, who conducted the research. "This was the result of cultural choices taken by households and communities, not environmental constraints, and suggests that Iron Age societies north and south of the Tweed-Solway zone were perceptibly dissimilar."
This archaeological division is interesting because it proves that much of the division happened long before the arrival of the romans between the 4th and 2nd centuries. Apart from this, Dr. Toolis notes that the differences in culture follow the Anglo-Scottish border rather than Hadrian's Wall, which is believed to have been placed from a strategic standpoint rather than as a tool of division. This is even further underlined by the late 'adoption' of Roman culture in the 5th century CE by the Scots.
"This only occurred when Iron Age society in Scotland had become hierarchical," said Dr Toolis. "The evidence implies that far from being passive participants in acculturation, it was only with their active participation and likely at their own instigation and on their own terms, that communities in Scotland truly adopted aspects of Roman culture."
The archaeological evidence suggests then that the construction of Hadrian's Wall was not caused by the cultural difference, but rather the effect of these cultural differences between the peoples of the two regions. This division continued well into the medieval period where the separate trajectories led to the formation of the two kingdoms, independent of Hadrian's Wall.

Edited from GUARD Archaeology (7 December 2021)

Scottish farmer fined for digging up ancient burial cairn

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 15:12:53 +0100

A farmer has been fined £18,000 (around 21,000 euros) for destroying a Neolithic site on Skye (Inner Hebrides, Scotland) after using the earth from Upper Tote Cairn to help build a new shed on his land. The 59-year-old had previously pled guilty to the destruction of the protected monument, which he had been contacted about three separate times by Historic Environment Scotland.
Andy Shanks, procurator fiscal for Grampain, Highlands and Islands said: "As the owner of the land this ancient monument sits on, it was [the owner's] duty to help protect it. Instead, he showed a complete disregard for its importance when he dug for soil and damaged Upper Tote Cairn."

Edited from BBC News (15 December 2021)

Digging down into the past with Mesolithic Deeside

Thu, 16 Dec 2021 09:03:10 +0100

The article details a reporter coming to an archaeological excavation with the archaeology group Mesolithic Deeside for an excavation at Milton of Crathes (Aberdeenshire, Scotland). The site the author visits is a veritable hotspot for prehistoric activity, were over 1,200 Mesolithic tools were unearthed earlier in the year.
At the test pit, the author gains an overview of the site from Site Director Ali Cameron who says: "We found more than 1,200 flints [pieces of worked stone] when we were field-walking here in March. The site has been known for a while - a retired biochemist, Dr John Grieve, collected flints here in the 1970s, and further west on the south side of the Dee, a lady who lived there, Hilda Paterson, is said to have filled her pockets with flints. We've dug test pits looking for evidence of people from 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. They dropped pieces of flint here when they were making or repairing tools."
Apart from the large variety of finds, the archaeologists collect the finds and measure them inside the test-pit grids to show finds concentrations across the site.
Mesolithic Deeside is always looking for more volunteers and there is a ton of reasons to get involved with the project. "We all really enjoy doing this sort of work," says Ali. "We love being outside, meeting people, we enjoy digging, finding flints, the social aspect, home baking - all sorts of different things. This project helps broaden our understanding of early prehistoric human activity in Deeside; we like knowing we're contributing to finding out what this area was like in the past. And we're always looking for new fields to explore!"

Edited from The Courier (25 November 2021)

3D model of ancient neolithic village online

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 17:01:45 +0100

As part of a project to digitally document over 300 Scottish heritage sites and their collections, a model of the neolithic village at Skara Brae on Orkney (Scotland) lets people explore Europe's most complete late stone-age settlement from a web browser.
Partly exposed by a storm in 1850 and slowly revealed by decades of careful excavations, the 5,000 year-old site comprises ten rooms linked by passageways. The digital tour includes access to House 7, the best-preserved house at Skara Brae, not normally accessible to the public. Virtual visitors can explore Skara Brae through time from its discovery just over 170 years ago to coastal erosion from rising sea levels and extreme weather events.
Spatial data from ultra-fast high-resolution laser scanning combined with hundreds of overlapping images of the site were used to create the model. Since 2010, Skara Brae and the surrounding bay have been laser scanned every two years to monitor coastal change and inform management and maintenance of the site.

Edited from The Herald, Engineering & Technology (1 December 2021)

Perthshire artefacts could be 3,000 years old

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 16:46:13 +0100

Excavations in advance of a housing development about 120 kilometres northeast of Glasgow (Scotland) have revealed the remains of eight prehistoric buildings, including roundhouses and a rare metalworking hearth, that may be more than 3,000 years old. Amongst the finds were two fragments of clay nozzles that protected the bellows used to force air into fires to raise the temperature. These are uncommon finds and may help the archaeologists study the techniques used by the smiths here to create metalwork.
The structures correspond to two of the main architectural types of Bronze Age houses. Pottery fragments found within some of these structures have been tentatively dated to the Bronze Age. One structure had been burnt down prior to being rebuilt in a completely different style. Early analysis of the artefacts suggests that the site was used from the Neolithic to the Iron Age.

Edited from The Courier (24 November 2021)

Hundreds of Mesolithic tools found in Scotland

Sun, 05 Dec 2021 09:38:25 +0100

More than 1,200 worked stone tools dating to around 6,000 to 10,000 years ago have been found alongside the River Dee, about 25 kilometres upstream of Aberdeen. Collected by volunteers with a local archaeology group, the artefacts include flint blades, scrapers and waste material, and a broken piece of Neolithic mace head. Features seen in aerial survey maps may represent the remains of a settlement.
The Mesolithic - or "Middle Stone Age" - sits between the Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) with its chipped stone tools, and the Neolithic (New Stone Age) with its polished stone tools. Among the new types of chipped stone tools associated with the Mesolithic are microliths - very small stone flakes intended for mounting together on a shaft in order to produce a serrated edge. Polished stone was another innovation that arose in some Mesolithic groups.
Northern European Mesolithic people flourished at about 6000 BCE, leaving behind woodworking tools, needles and pins, fish-hooks, harpoons and fish spears, larger ground stone tools such as club heads, along with wooden artefacts such as axe handles, dugout boats and paddles, and fishnets made using tree bark fibre. At Star Carr - a Mesolithic site in North Yorkshire - remnants of four or five huts suggest a population of around 25 people, and may have been occupied on a seasonal basis.

Edited from BBC News, Daily Mail Online (8 November 2021)

Massive cursus monument discovered on a Scottish isle

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 16:17:32 +0100

The discovery of a cursus monument site at Tormore on the Isle of Arran (North Ayrshire), which is more than a kilometre long, is helping to reshape Neolithic history in Scotland.
Cursus monuments were often defined by long lines of timber posts, forming a long rectangle, and were amongst the most spectacular features in the Neolithic landscape. The posts may have served as a procession route, perhaps to honour the dead. Some were burned to the ground in an almighty display which is believed to have been part of the ceremonies associated with these huge monuments.
Dave Cowley, Rapid Archaeological Mapping Programme Manager at Historic Environment Scotland, who discovered the site following a laser scan of Arran, described the cursus monument as a 'cathedral of the day'.
He said: "Arran has got some cracking Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeology but we are still surprised that this monument is here. It adds a whole additional dimension to what the archaeology of the Neolithic on Arran can tell us. It is like finding a whole new layer in a box of chocolates of new things. What this example at Tormore tells is there are probably actually many more on them but because they were built from timber, you are not likely to see them in the unimproved peat landscape of the west coast."
Mr Cowley detected the site after picking up two lines of mounds, which lie roughly parallel and stand 30 to 40 centimetres high, and which run for around a kilometre. He said: "When you look at the topography, it very slightly runs to the crest of a ridge. They have been very careful how they have positioned this monument. There probably was a superstructure here but we won't know for sure without excavation. It would have had impact. There is an element of design to it, a form of landscape architecture. It does seem likely that there were timber elements built into it. Whether or not it was set on fire we just don't know at the moment."
The site was discovered following an aerial laser scan of the site using Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) technology, which uses laser pulses to measure objects. Images can then be reworked by filtering out vegetation or by changing the way it is lit which can then reveal previously unknown characteristics in the land. More than 1,000 unknown archaeological sites have been found on Arran using the technology.

Edited from The Scotsman (20 January 2021)

Ancient site in Orkney under threat from coastal erosion

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 16:16:12 +0100

The pandemic has stopped the race to save archaeological remains at Knowe of Swandro on the island of Rousay, Orkney (Scotland), which are being eaten away by rising tides and storm surges. The site houses a 5,500-year-old Neolithic burial chamber, the remains of a large and unusual high-status Iron Age roundhouse, Pictish dwellings, a smithy, and a grand Norse Hall.
The coastal site has long been damaged by rising tides and coastal erosion and now archaeologists are 'keeping their fingers crossed' that it will still be there when they return to Rousay once the health emergency abates.
Dr Julie Bond and Dr Stephen Dockrill, of Bradford University, have retrieved material from Swandro for the past 10 years but with last year's excavation cancelled due to the pandemic and next summer's dig in doubt, there are now real concerns over what will be left when they return.
Dr Dockrill said: "Every year we are getting big erosion events with storm surges coming into the site and taking material away. The other thing is that the daily tide is coming in and out and every time archaeological material is going into solution. By not being there, we will have lost a lot of material on the seaward side."
A priority is the rescue excavation of the chambered tomb, which is likely to hold Neolithic burial remains, which sits under an unsual Iron Age roundhouse. The large roundhouse, which has now been dated to 800 to 400 BCE, is also of particular interest given it is up 700 years older than similar buildings.
The archaeologists usually welcome a large, international team of students to assist with the excavations at Swandro with a collective of multi-disciplinary experts lined up to work on the site. Dr Bond said the situation was 'frustrating' but that safety of the team and of the island took absolute priority .
To support the work at Swandro, visit www.swandro.co.uk

Edited from The Scotsman (16 January 2021)

Ancient stone tower conserved in Scotland

Thu, 07 Jan 2021 20:05:19 +0100

The ruins of Ousdale Burn Broch, north of Helmsdale in Caithness (Scotland), had fallen into further disrepair over the past 130 years. A wall near the entrance to the broch had collapsed and a tree was growing inside the structure. Conservation work was delayed by the Covid pandemic and by a caravan being dumped by fly-tippers at the site.
Brochs date back to 2,000 years ago and were built to heights of more than 12m (40ft). It is thought they were used as dwellings, perhaps for local chieftains. Caithness is home to about 200 brochs.
Ousdale broch was once been described as one of the best preserved brochs in Caithness. Excavations caused damage in 1891 and parts of the site collapsed and suffered structural damage in 2013 and 2015. Damage has been repaired and engineers have installed protection to prevent further deterioration of the broch.
Archaeological charity, Caithness Broch Project, secured £180,000 of funding for the work and it is hoped that the site will become a tourist attraction. Chairman Robin Herrick said: "I think it will become a big attraction not just for visiting tourists but for regular users of the A9 from Inverness to Caithness who will have passed by many times without realising what a special place it is."

Edited from BBC News (8 December 2020)

Scottish lost stone circle reconstructed in 3-D

Sat, 26 Dec 2020 20:03:04 +0100

The Na Dromannan stone circle on the Isle of Lewis off the northwest coast of Scotland can be seen for the first time in more than 4,000 years after stones buried in the landscape were mapped and measured and digitally modelled. The site is close to the famous Calanais Standing Stones, and is one of a number of circles that became submerged in the peats over time. Another, known as Site XI or Airigh na Beinne Bige, today consists of a single standing stone on an exposed hillside overlooking Calanais. A geophysical survey revealed that not only was the stone originally part of a circle of standing stones but that the centre had been struck by either a huge bolt of lightning or a number of smaller strikes on the same spot.
Investigations are now set to get underway into other stone circle sites which have become lost to the ground in Lewis.
The cross-shaped setting of stones at Calanais were put in place around 5,000 years ago. They predate Stonehenge and were an important place for ritual activity for at least 2,000 years.

Edited from The Scotsman (18 November 2020)

Lightning strike may have inspired builders of Callanish

Fri, 27 Dec 2019 18:24:58 +0100

A geophysical survey around one of the standing stones on the northwestern Scotland island of Lewis reveals a star-shaped pattern resulting from one or more lightning strikes covering an area up to 20 metres in diameter.
The single stone within is about 2,800 metres from the famous Callanish stone circle. New evidence shows this 1.5-metre-high stone was originally part of another circle with the lightning strike pattern at its centre. The Callanish great circle is thought to have been erected around 3,000 BCE. More than 15 other sites on the island have been identified as possible 'satellite' circles.
Project leader Dr Richard Bates, a geoscientist at St Andrews University, says the lightning strike occurred before peat started to form around 3,000 years ago.
Professor Vincent Gaffney, one of the archaeologists, says "We're really excited. This was completely and utterly unexpected. Seeing the evidence for a massive strike, right in the middle of what now seems to be a stone circle, is remarkable." Gaffney's brother, Dr Chris Gaffney, an archaeological geophysicist, said that it was impossible to see the fossilised lightning strike by just walking across the site: "You literally have to peel back all of the peat potentially to see the scarring on the bedrock."

Edited from The Guardian (21 December 2019), Mail Online (22 December 2019)

Nine Bronze Age carved stones unearthed in Orkney

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 20:26:27 +0100

A team from ORCA Archaeology, carrying out exploratory excavations at the proposed site of an electrical substation development in Orkney (Scotland), has unearthed nine, half-metre tall stone-carved objects. Some of the finds look remarkably like carved stone representations of the human form, while others could have potentially been used to tie mooring ropes onto, to help hold roofs in place. It's thought the stones could possibly date to around the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, roughly 4000 years ago.
The ORCA team was working at a site just outside Finstown and the excavators dug through sixty centimetres of midden deposits after unearthing the remains of an ancient structure, made up of burial cists and hearths. The stones were scattered around a hearth within the structure, and three of the roughly carved figures appeared to be important enough to the people who used the building to be incorporated within one of the hearths and in the foundations a standing stone.
Archaeologists will now work to officially date the stones as others have previously been found on Iron Age sites in Orkney. Identifying the purpose of the stones, and if they are indeed figurines, will also require further investigations, with experts looking for clues including abrasion, wear and any other marks on the anthropomorphic objects.
Professor Colin Richards from the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute said: "It is very rare to find representations of people in prehistoric Orkney and when found, they are usually individual or in very small groups. If they are figurines, to find nine within one structure is very exciting."
Elsewhere at the site, the team also saw signs of people working the land some 4000 years ago. In one excavation trench, long marks were found cut into the clay subsoil, made by ard point ploughs. The survival of these marks is relatively rare and could be some of the earliest evidence of farming in Orkney.
Pete Higgins, ORCA Archaeology Project Manager, said: "This collaborative project gives us the opportunity to examine an important prehistoric site that would otherwise not have been excavated. The exploratory trenches are now recorded and covered over, while the significant artefacts are now cleaned and stored for future study. Discussions will take place on the next steps for the development."

Edited from Orkney.com (6 December 2019)

Public help document damage to historic Scottish sites

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 20:25:41 +0100

Members of the public are helping to document the effects of weather and vandalism at some of Scotland's most ancient monuments. As they are uploading images of ancient sites, experts use the pictures to spot changes in the state of the sites.
Historic Environment Scotland and the Institute of Sustainable Heritage at University College London are working on Monument Monitor, a two-year project involving 20 sites.
The 4,000-year-old Clava Cairns near Inverness is among the monitored locations. One of Scotland's ancient burial sites, the cairns and the standing stones are credited with inspiring parts of author Diana Gabaldon's Outlander stories. The cairns were built as houses for the dead and the cemetery was a used as a sacred place for 1,000 years.
The site has suffered damage in the past: in 2017, stones were dislodged and graffiti written on a rock. There had been interference at the site 17 years previously when a Belgian tourist took a stone from one of the cairns as a souvenir. He later returned it to the Highlands after complaining it had 'cursed' his family. Surprised staff at Inverness Tourist Centre received a parcel containing the stone and a letter which urged them to return it to its rightful place at Clava Cairns. The man said that since taking the stone his daughter had broken her leg, his wife had become very ill, and he had lost his job and broken his arm. A tourist official returned the 'cursed stone' to Clava Cairns.

Edited from BBC News (6 December 2019)

Damage to Iron Age site in the Outer Hebrides

Sat, 30 Nov 2019 09:37:28 +0100

Police are investigating a reported unauthorised excavation at an Iron Age site in the Western Isles (Scotland). Dun Torcuill, a small uninhabited island in North Uist, has the archaeological remains of an ancient stone-built tower called a broch. Police Scotland said it received a report of the damage on 22 October and was now appealing for information.
Sgt Gavin McDevitt, of Lochmaddy Police Station, said: "Damaging or removing any part of a scheduled monument is a criminal offence. In this instance, there is the potential for destabilisation of the monument, and the loss of archaeological deposits previously protected by the tumbled stone." He added: "The penalties for offences under the Act are considerably higher than those for damage to property or vandalism offences, with fines ranging up to £50,000 or prison sentences of up to two years."
Historic Environment Scotland said it would urge anyone with information on the incident to contact Scottish police.
Brochs are some of Scotland's oldest and most formidable structures to be found in Scotland, many of them in the Highlands, the Western Isles and Orkney.

Edited from BBC News (11 November 2019)

Neolithic decorated stone discovered in Orkney

Fri, 06 Sep 2019 23:36:15 +0100

Archaeological excavations of well-preserved and sophisticated complex of stone buildings began at Ness of Brodgar (Orkney, Scotland) more than 15 years ago. The site was built and occupied more than 5,000 years ago and covers an area of about 2.5 hectares.
Recently an 18 centimetre long notch-marked slab bearing faint incised lines was found among the rubble, followed by further discoveries of smaller carved stones. Painted stonework and tools are among other previous finds made at Ness of Brodgar.

Edited from BBC (19 July 2019), Ness of Brodgar (24 August 2019)