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Thousands of flint artefacts found in a South Lanarkshire field were the tools of hunters chasing herds of wilds and horses during the late late-glacial period, say archaeologists investigating the oldest evidence of human occupation ever recorded in Scotland, from 14,000 years ago.
Roaming before the re-emergence of glacial conditions which saw Scotland depopulated once more, the first settlers in Scotland left more than 5,000 artefacts at Howburn, near Biggar, where the local archaeology group unearthed them between 2005 and 2009.
They are said to be “strikingly similar” to similar European discoveries from the same period.
“These tools represent a real connection with archaeological finds in north-west Germany, southern Denmark and north-west Holland - a connection not seen elsewhere in Britain at this time,” says Alan Saville, a Senior Curator in Earliest Prehistory at the National Museums of Scotland who is also the President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and a specialist in the study of flaked flint and stone tools.
“This discovery is both intriguing and revolutionises our ideas about where humans came from in this very early period.
“In southern Britain, early links are with northern France and Belgium. Howburn is just one chance discovery and further such discoveries will no doubt emerge.”
The climate had improved when the game hunters arrived, but the return of glacial weather is thought to have driven humans away until around 1,000 years later. A now-destroyed cave in Argyll had previously provided the earliest evidence of humans in Scotland.
Detailing the findings, which will be fully published in a Historic Scotland report next year, Cabinet Secretary for Culture Fiona Hyslop also announced more than £1.4 million in funding for dozens of archaeological projects across Scotland during the next year.
Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk
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