The ‘Obanian Iron Age’: human remains from the Oban cave sites, Argyll, Scotland

Saville, Alan; Hallén, Ywonne

doi:10.1017/s0003598x00047426

Cited by 17 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…A total of 178 measurements provides an average δ 13 C value of -20.2±1.2‰ (Alexander 2000;Ambers et al 1991;Barrett et al 2000b;Bronk Ramsey et al 1999;Burleigh et al 1982;Cook 2000;Cressey 2001;Downes 2000;Ewart 2000;Greig et al 2000;Hall , 2000James 1998;Moloney 2000;Neighbour 1999Neighbour , 2001Rees , 2001G. Ritchie 1981;Saville 1999;Saville and Hallén 1994;Turner 1999). While this includes human remains from both coastal and inland areas, a large number are from sites lying within less than 10 km of the coast, including a Medieval/early modern site on Colonsay, as well as Iron Age humans interred in the Mesolithic shell midden at MacArthur's Cave, near Oban (Saville and Hallén 1994).…”

Section: Isotope Values Elsewhere and Elsewhen In Scotlandmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ritchie 1981;Saville 1999;Saville and Hallén 1994;Turner 1999). While this includes human remains from both coastal and inland areas, a large number are from sites lying within less than 10 km of the coast, including a Medieval/early modern site on Colonsay, as well as Iron Age humans interred in the Mesolithic shell midden at MacArthur's Cave, near Oban (Saville and Hallén 1994). The low standard deviation emphasizes the relative homogeneity of the sample.…”

Section: Isotope Values Elsewhere and Elsewhen In Scotlandmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The wet, the wild and the domesticated: The Mesolithic–Neolithic transition on the west coast of Scotland

Richards

2002

Eur. j. archaeol.

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Models of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in Britain in recent years have tended to downplay the role of changes in the subsistence economy, emphasizing a very gradual adoption of new domesticated resources. This view has been particularly pervasive for the west coast of Scotland, which in the context of Britain presents a relatively marginal environment for farming. In this article, we challenge this too-quickly emerging orthodoxy through the presentation and discussion of both new and previously published stable isotope data and AMS dates. The palaeodietary information, while limited, strongly suggests a very rapid and complete change in the subsistence economy coincident with the earliest manifestations of the Neolithic on the west coast of Scotland early in the fourth millennium cal. BC. Whatever explanation is invoked to account for the transition needs to engage with the isotopic data. The possibility of colonization at some level needs to be seriously reconsidered.

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Section: Isotope Values Elsewhere and Elsewhen In Scotlandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Isotope Values Elsewhere and Elsewhen In Scotlandmentioning

confidence: 99%

The wet, the wild and the domesticated: The Mesolithic–Neolithic transition on the west coast of Scotland

Richards

2002

Eur. j. archaeol.

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“…As such they fit very neatly into the emerging pattern of evidence for Neolithic cave and rockshelter burial practice, particularly during the 4th millennium cal bc, throughout Britain (Cham-berlain 1996;Saville 2005, 358), but also locally on the west coast of Scotland (see especially the dates for human remains from Carding Mill Bay and Raschoille; Milner & Craig 2009, 175). There are other instances of later re-use of middens for burial, both in Scotland Milner & Craig 2009;Pollard 1990;Saville & Hallén 1994) and further afield (e.g. Bjørnsholm, Denmark: Andersen 1991, 78).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Corran, Staffin, Skye: a rockshelter with Mesolithic and later occupation

Saville¹,

Hardy²,

Miket³

et al. 2012

sair

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The An Corran rockshelter, on the north-east coast of the Trotternish peninsula, Skye, contained a series of shell midden and other deposits with evidence for human occupation from Mesolithic and later periods. A rescue investigation of the site in the winter of 1993-94, immediately prior to anticipated total destruction by rock-blasting for roadworks, included the excavation of a trench dug down to bedrock. A total of 41 separate contexts were identi-fied. Of these, 31 were recent or later prehistoric, the upper levels containing a series of hearths of recent date and an Iron Age copper-alloy pin. The lowest 10 layers were identified initially as Mesolithic on the basis of bone tool and lithic typology, but a series of 18 radiocarbon dates indicates they contain the residues of subsequent prehistoric activity as well. These layers consisted of several distinct areas of midden, below which there were two, possibly three, horizons which probably, based on the presence of broad blade microliths, represent Early Mesolithic activity. The midden layers also contained some human bones radiocarbon-dated to the Neolithic period. The rockshelter was located below an outcrop of baked mudstone and near a source of chalcedonic silica. Both these lithic raw materials were widely used during the Mesolithic as far away as the island of Rum.

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“…In this context, it is worth considering the recent reanalysis of Iron Age human remains from MacArthur Cave near Oban (Saville andHallén 1994, Tucker 2010). A series of Early Iron Age human remains from the cave dated by a series of AMS dates to between cal.…”

Section: Curation and Display?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Death and Display in the North Atlantic: The Bronze and Iron Age Human Remains from Cnip, Lewis, Outer Hebrides

Armit

Shapland

2015

Journal of the North Atlantic

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-This paper revisits the series of disarticulated human remains discovered during the 1980s excavations of the Cnip wheelhouse complex in Lewis. Four fragments of human bone, including two worked cranial fragments, were originally dated to the 1 st centuries BC/AD based on stratigraphic association. Osteoarchaeological reanalysis and AMS dating now provide a broader cultural context for these remains and indicate that at least one adult cranium was brought to the site more than a thousand years after the death of the individual to whom it had belonged.

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The ‘Obanian Iron Age’: human remains from the Oban cave sites, Argyll, Scotland

Cited by 17 publications

References 14 publications

The wet, the wild and the domesticated: The Mesolithic–Neolithic transition on the west coast of Scotland

The wet, the wild and the domesticated: The Mesolithic–Neolithic transition on the west coast of Scotland

An Corran, Staffin, Skye: a rockshelter with Mesolithic and later occupation

Death and Display in the North Atlantic: The Bronze and Iron Age Human Remains from Cnip, Lewis, Outer Hebrides

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