Lost and found twice: Discussion of an early post-glacial single-edged tanged point from Brodgar on Orkney, Scotland

Abstract

Abstract:Over the last few decades it has been shown that Scotland was settled -or at least occasionally visited -during the late Upper Palaeolithic period. The finds include diagnostic artefacts of Hamburgian, Federmesser and Ahrensburgian typology, but since Livens' presentation in 1956 of three tanged arrowheads from Scotland, it has also been discussed whether northern Britain was settled or visited from the north-east, by groups belonging to the Scandinavian Fosna-Hensbacka complex. Only one of the three arrowheads presented by Livens appeared to be a Fosna-Hensbacka point, but this piece was lost immediately after the paper in which it was initially summarily described was published. However, this point -originally found at Brodgar on Orkney -has now been refound, and the authors hope that their detailed characterization and discussion of the object's date and affinity will allow the question of a possible Upper Palaeolithic-Early Mesolithic connection across Doggerland to be addressed in a more authoritative manner.

Searching for the Scottish Late Upper Palaeolithic: A case study from Nethermills Farm, Aberdeenshire

“…The rediscovered pieces described by Livens were originally found on Orkney, and conform to types generally known from the Scandinavian Ahrensburgian and Early Mesolithic period (single-edged points and squat tanged points from the Fosna-Hensbacka period; Ballin & Bjerck 2016).…”

“…In Scotland, tanged points are so far absent from stratified Mesolithic and later assemblages (Saville 2004), whereas some Scottish examples have been identified by local as well as Continental specialists as dating to the later Hamburgian (Howburn) and the Ahrensburgian (Tiree and Shieldaig), with Orcadian points showing Scandinavian affinities (Ballin & Bjerck 2016).…”

“…The situation was exacerbated by the fact that shortly after Livens' publication the pieces vanished, with the result that until recently the question of a Scottish Upper Palaeolithic has been treated with some skepticism. In the present paper, the Late Upper Palaeolithic is defined, following Pettitt (2008) and Pettitt & White (2012), as the period from the beginning of the Late Glacial amelioration to the beginning of the Holocene, and in Scotland embracing the Hamburgian, Federmessergruppen and Ahrensburgian industries, as well as possibly elements linked to the Scandinavian Fosna Hensbacka Culture (Ballin & Bjerck 2016). At the present time, the only Creswellian object recovered in Scotland is the angle-backed point from Fairnington in southern Scotland (Saville 2004: fig.…”

“…We have chosen to apply north-west European terminology (names of industries), as the Scottish industries show the closest parallels with those directly across the now sub-merged Doggerland basin (Ballin 2016) (Table 1). The recognition and publication of a number of typo-technologically certain preMesolithic pieces and assemblages from the 1990's onwards has served to build the case for LUP activity in Scotland, and recently two of the pieces described by Livens have resurfaced (one piece discussed in Ballin & Bjerck 2016); the other piece is presently being prepared for publication by H. Anderson-Whymark, University of York (personal communications with Hugo Anderson-Whymark, November 2015). The recent finding of a further piece among the material from an old excavation at Nethermills Farm (Wickham-Jones et al in press), has prompted this note.…”

Archaeological excavations at Nethermills Farm, Deeside, 1978–81

“…Until recently, the presence of sporadic atypical pieces like these would not have been considered significant with regard to pre-Mesolithic activity, however, given the increasing evidence for Upper Palaeolithic activity in Scotland (Saville & Ballin 2009;Ballin et al 2010;Mithen et al 2015), the possibility that they document occasional pre-Mesolithic visits to the site cannot be discounted. The tanged point, in particular, is a type that has received considerable attention in recent studies (eg Ballin & Bjerck 2016). Though it is not possible to assign this specific artefact to a particular type, it is likely to be related to either the Hamburgian period (13500-11500 bc), or the Ahrensburgian period (11000-10000 bc), to which the larger blade-scraper and obliquely truncated blade fragment may also be related.…”