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Aspects of Mesolithic Archaeology
Some members of UWHG, who are also members of the Ingleborough Archaeology Group, took part in excavations of a Mesolithic site at Kingsdale Head in May 2009.
As part of the programme, the excavation director, Dr Nigel Melton and environmental archaeologist, Hannah Russ, were joined by Dr Nicky Milner, of York University, to give three talks to the Group on Mesolithic archaeology.
Setting the scene - Hannah Russ University of Bradford
Hannah Russ, from the Hunter-Gatherer Research Laboratory, University of Bradford, and Archaeology in Action, has been working on the Kingsdale site as environmental archaeologist. At the evening presentation she provided a general introduction to the Mesolithic. She explained how varied the Mesolithic diet was, consisting of fish, berries, deer, hare, shellfish, wild birds, eggs, tubers, fungi, crab apples, and hazel nuts. Hazelnuts, indeed are ubiquitous on Mesolithic sites, often found as charred remains. The presence of beavers was probably a great advantage to the hunter-gatherers – providing not only fur, bones and teeth to make tools, but also a ready supply of “chopped” firewood. Stone tools, mostly fashioned from flint and chert, were small – microliths, bladelets, awls, scrapers and micro-burins.
Evidence from Denmark suggests they also made wooden bows, and wove baskets, made traps and boats, and used plant fibres for making string, tar to haft tools, and used poisons in hunting and fishing.
Mesolithic peoples were mobile, adopting a seasonal pattern moving between lowlands and uplands, from the coast (which was much farther out than it is today) to flint extraction sites and summer camps.
The changes in climate which affected their lifestyle, can be assessed using “high resolution” species – pollen, terrestrial molluscs, shrews, voles, frogs and toads – which adapt quickly and are therefore good indicators of environmental change.
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Recent Excavations at Star Carr - Dr Nicky Milner (University of York)
Dr Nicky Milner, from the University of York, provided us with a summary of excavations at the Mesolithic site of Star Carr, in the Vale of Pickering, Yorkshire. Discovered in the 1950s, Star Carr has been the focus of excavations ever since. On the marshy edges of the lake that once stood here, Mesolithic communities built wooden platforms and appear to have established a base camp for several families.
Graham Clark’s original excavations, which concentrated on a waterlogged area, found over 190 harpoons – these constitute 98% of the known Mesolithic harpoons found in Britain. Other finds included shale beads (only found here and in Wales) and deer antler heads manipulated for unknown purposes. Some of the antlers have been deliberately truncated, and the craniums scraped on the inside to make them thinner and lighter, and holes have been punched through the forehead area. Various theories have been put forward regarding these – perhaps they were for hunting camouflage or ritual?
Unfortunately, Clark’s original field notes and photographs were destroyed once the monograph was published, and it is known that any finds smaller than a thumbnail were discarded.
Since the 1980s the Vale of Pickering Trust has been working with the University of York and the University of Manchester, to extend the investigation of this nationally important site. Layers of cut timbers have been found, providing the earliest known evidence of wood working in Europe. Environmental sampling suggests the site was occupied for 200 years. A great deal of effort has been put into defining the extent of the lake, using auguring techniques. It is hoped this will help archaeologists to determine the location of further Mesolithic lakeside sites in the area.
15 Mesolithic sites have so far been found around the former lake’s edge, but none have produced the kind of finds that came out of Star Carr. However, flint scatters have been found, and several post holes
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The Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition in Shetland - Dr Nigel Melton (University of Bradford)
Dr Nigel Melton, site director at Kingsdale, reported on the findings of excavations of a midden sequence and Early Neolithic structure (c. 4,300 – 3250 BC) near West Voe, Shetland.
The midden post-dated pollen evidence from elsewhere in Shetland (Catta Ness, Lunasting & Dallican Water, Northeast Mainland) that suggests introduction of grazing animals c.6000 cal BC – agricultural livestock would have been the first mammals on the island. Recently published pollen evidence from Loch of Gards, located only a few hundred metres from the West Voe middens (Edwards et al 2009) shows a marked decline in woodland species and a rise in microcharcoal during the period that the middens were being deposited.
The midden contained several distinct layers of material. At the bottom were oyster shells (dated c. 3,600-4,300 BC). Above these was a layer of limpets, with pockets of bones, mainly juvenile seals and seabirds (90% of the latter were of shag). The next layer above consisted of compacted mussel shells. Tiny pieces of pottery, and cow or red deer bones embedded in this layer represent the transition into the Neolithic. The next layer above contains more complete mussel shells and heated stones.
The midden is was covered by a rapidly deposited layer of sand, and then a stone structure and a midden of shells (100% cockles). A cow tooth and part of a sheep skull (dated to c.3,284) were found in association with this midden and structure.
Nigel also re-investigated an early Neolithic burial cairn at nearby Sumburgh, which contained the only known Neolithic human skeletal remains in Shetland (c. 3,500-3,100 BC). Disarticulated bones were discovered in the 1970s, but the site was destroyed by construction work for a local airport. All that remains are a few archaeological notes and photographs lodged at the RCAHMS in Edinburgh. The structure was probably a semi-sunken stone-coursed chamber, similar to that in the heel-shaped cairn at Pundswater, and certainly very different from contemporary chambered cairns in Orkney. Grave goods had included stone beads, polished axe fragments, jasper core and flakes (the latter very rare in Scotland), and some ceramic pieces. There appear to have been two phases of burials, broadly contemporary with the upper midden at West Voe, just a few hundred yards away.
The remains were of 27 individuals including 1 adult male, 9 young adults, 5 adolescents, 9 children and 3 babies/neonates. Palaeopathology present includes trauma, joint disease, osteo-arthritis, infection, and childhood malnutrition. Analysis of the mortuary practice showed that some of the individuals were inhumed as whole skeletons, while others had been excarnated by temporary burial (not exposure). In one case, the arrangement of the bones may have been similar to seated burials found in the late Mesolithic cemetery excavated in Skateholm, Sweden.
Analysis of dietary isotopes indicates that both marine and terrestrial foods were being eaten, which supports the hypothesis that the transition from the Mesolithic to Neolithic was not sudden in Shetland. This matches the archaeological evidence from the West Voe middens that exploitation of coastal resources continued for at least 250 to 300 years into the Neolithic, the transition to which occurred at approximately the same time as on mainland Scotland.
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Further information:
Online:
Yorkshire Hunter-Gatherer Research project, University of Bradford
http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/archsci/ydhgrg/index.php?value=ydhgrp
N. D. Melton & R. A. Nicholson – The Mesolithic in the Northern Isles: the preliminary evaluation of an oyster midden at West Voe, Sumburgh, Shetland, U.K. Antiquity Vol 78 No 299, March 2004 (http://antiquity.ac.uk/ProjGall/nicholson/ )
University of York - "Coastal Shell Middens and Agricultural Origins in Atlantic Europe" research project website, ( http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/arch/middens/index.htm )
Centre for Earth and Environmental Science, Kingston University, London - The Geoarchaeology of West Voe sands; Shetland Islands - http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/projects/Gillmore_Shetlands.htm
Fading star – British Archaeology, Issue 96, September/October 2007 http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba96/feat3.shtml
University of Cambridge, Dept of Archaeology – Star Carr Project - http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/projects/starcarr.html
Star Carr project website - http://www.starcarr.com/
Paul Mellars - Revising the Mesolithic at Star Carr; Issue no 48, October 1999, British Archaeology (http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba48/ba48feat.html)
Mesolithic Miscellany – (University of York) http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/arch/Mesolithic/index.htm
Dr Nicky Milner - Star Carr, excavation in the Vale of Pickering – (University of York) http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/arch/Projects/StarCarrWebsite/index.htm
The Northern Hunter Gatherer Discussion Forum
http://hgdiscussionforum.googlepages.com/home
Printed sources:
Edwards, K. J., J. E. Schofield, G. Whittnigton, & N. D. Melton. 2009. Palynology ‘On the edge’ and the Archaeological vindication of a Mesolithic Presence? The case of Shetland. In N. Finlay, S. McCartan, N. Milner, and C.Wickham-Jones. From Bann Flakes to Bushmills. Prehistoric Society Research Report 1:113-123. Oxford: Oxbow.
Melton, N. D. 2009. Shells, seals and ceramics: an evaluation of a midden at West Voe, Sumburgh, Shetland, 2004-2005. In S. McCartan, P. Woodman, R. Schulting and G. Warren (ed.) Mesolithic Horizons: Papers Presented at the Seventh International Conference on the Mesolithic in Europe, Belfast 2005: 184-189. Oxford: Oxbow
Melton, N. D. 2008. West Voe: A Mesolithic-Neolithic transition site in Shetland. In G. Noble, T. Poller, J. Raven and L. Verrill (ed.) Scottish odysseys: the archaeology of islands: 23-36. Stroud: Tempus
Melton, N. D. & R. A. Nicholson 2007. A Late Mesolithic-Early Neolithic midden at West Voe, Shetland. In N. Milner, O. E. Craig and G. N. Bailey (ed.) Shell middens in Atlantic Europe: 94-100. Oxford: Oxbow
Melton, N. D. 2005. Investigations at West Voe, Sumburgh: new work at Shetland's earliest known archaeological site. The New Shetlander 233: 21-22.
Melton, N. D. & R. A. Nicholson 2004. The Mesolithic in the Northern Isles: the preliminary evaluation of an oyster midden at West Voe, Sumburgh, Shetland, UK. Antiquity 78: http://antiquity.ac.uk/ProjGall/nicholson/index.html
Melton, N. D. & R. A. Nicholson 2004. Hunter-gatherers in Shetland: archaeological investigations at West Voe, Sumburgh. The New Shetlander 229: 31-33.
Surge, D. and Milner, N. (2003) 'Oyster shells as history books', Shellfish News 16, 5-7.
Milner, N., Craig, O.E. and Bailey, G.N. (2007) Shell middens in Atlantic Europe, Oxford: Oxbow
Jane Lunnon & Nigel Melton
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