From Stone Pages Archaeo News Issue 242
Hazelnut shell pushes back date of Orcadian site
A charred hazelnut shell recovered during the excavations at Longhowe
in Tankerness (Orkney, Scotland), earlier this year, has been dated
to 6820-6660 BCE. Although Orkney has plenty of indications of early
(pre-farming or Mesolithic) settlement in the form of stone tools,
this is the first date to relate to this activity. It pushes back the
dated settlement of Orkney by 3,000 years.
The hazelnut shell was found in a pocket of soil that had
survived underneath the Bronze Age burial mound at Longhowe and
provides a context for numerous stone arrowheads and other tools,
which were found both in the soil below, and in, the matrix of the
mound. It is likely that the remains of a small Mesolithic hunting
camp were destroyed by the mound builders.
Caroline Wickham Jones explained: "This date relates to the
earliest known period of settlement of Scotland when bands of nomadic
hunters lived here. Remains from this time are scarce and few sites
have been recognised by archaeologists, especially in the north.
Longhowe is therefore important both for the light it can shed on
this elusive period of Orkney's past as well as for our understanding
of the early settlement of Scotland as a whole."
Source: Orkneyjar (3 November 2007)
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