Secrets of ancient Scottish hunters revealed by camp
It was an age when reindeer roamed the Scottish landscape, competing for territory with human raiding parties from what is now the North Sea.
The country lay under glaciers as far south as the Highland Line, and a mini ice-age was fast approaching.
Today, for the first time, Scottish archaeologists will tell the story of this remarkable period at a national conference in Glasgow.
Alan Saville, of National Museums Scotland, will join archaeologist Tam Ward to discuss ongoing work at Howburn Farm, an ancient human campsite discovered by amateur enthusiasts in 2005. The discovery, north of Biggar, is the oldest so far found, and proves that humans lived in Scotland as long as 14,000 years ago.
Initial estimates suggested stone tools at the scene were made in around 2000 BCE, but last year they were shown to be more than four times as old, making them the earliest signs of humanity so far discovered in Scotland.
Now, experts have pieced together some of the life story of the humans who would have used them.
Saville told The Herald these early arrivals would have been physically similar to today’s Scots, but with a markedly different lifestyle.
“If you dressed them in a suit and walked them down the street you wouldn’t notice the difference, but they were nomads, hunters,” he said.
“They lived in small groups, probably tribes of some sort. It’s virtually impossible to tell how many used this site at one time, but probably no more than half-a-dozen or so.”
Saville described the Howburn Farm site as “a forward camp rather than a base camp”, suggesting it was a temporary home for a hunting party.
The hunters would most likely have been men and younger boys, he said, but archaeologists are still debating how they would have used the stone and flint tools that have been discovered.
“It’s one of the $64,000 questions about this period – whether these small, blunted points were used as tips and barbs of spears or of arrows,” Saville said.
The implements are about 4cm in length, and as many as 40,000 fragments have been uncovered so far.
It appears that the hunters made their own weapons at the campsite, and it may have been visited by several groups over a number of years.
The men would most likely have hunted reindeer and horses, Saville said, citing similarities between their tools and others used for this purpose on the continent.
In those days, Scotland’s climate would have been similar to modern Scandinavia, but a mini ice-age that began about 13,000 years ago sent temperatures plummeting for a 1000-year
period in the interim.
This would have forced hunting parties and their prey back across the North Sea basin towards Denmark and Germany, meaning the humans who roamed Scotland 14,000 years ago were probably not ancestors of modern Scots, unless their descendants returned during one of numerous invasions over the last two millennia.
Saville said the find in Scotland was slightly different in character to other sites in Yorkshire and southern England, and that it had more in common with those in other northern European countries.
The absence of any discoveries in the north of England may point towards a buffer zone between two distinct populations of early nomads.
The nomadic way of life persisted for thousands of years, until the neolithic age saw the advent of farming. Advances in the Bronze and Iron Ages then allowed urban centres to spring up, paving the way for the world as we know it today.
Tam Ward, the amateur archaeologist who led the exploration of Howburn Farm, said his group – the Biggar Archaeological Trust – was turning up new sites every weekend.
“We’re finding mesolithic sites all over the place, dating from about 10,000 years ago to 6000 years,” he said.
The Archaeological Research in Progress Conference 2010 takes place at the Burrell Collection, Pollok Country Park, Glasgow today. Entry is free.
Fuente: The Herald Scotland: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/secrets-of-ancient-scottish-hunters-revealed-by-camp-1.1031197
It was an age when reindeer roamed the Scottish landscape, competing for territory with human raiding parties from what is now the North Sea.
The country lay under glaciers as far south as the Highland Line, and a mini ice-age was fast approaching.
Today, for the first time, Scottish archaeologists will tell the story of this remarkable period at a national conference in Glasgow.
Alan Saville, of National Museums Scotland, will join archaeologist Tam Ward to discuss ongoing work at Howburn Farm, an ancient human campsite discovered by amateur enthusiasts in 2005. The discovery, north of Biggar, is the oldest so far found, and proves that humans lived in Scotland as long as 14,000 years ago.
Initial estimates suggested stone tools at the scene were made in around 2000 BCE, but last year they were shown to be more than four times as old, making them the earliest signs of humanity so far discovered in Scotland.
Now, experts have pieced together some of the life story of the humans who would have used them.
Saville told The Herald these early arrivals would have been physically similar to today’s Scots, but with a markedly different lifestyle.
“If you dressed them in a suit and walked them down the street you wouldn’t notice the difference, but they were nomads, hunters,” he said.
“They lived in small groups, probably tribes of some sort. It’s virtually impossible to tell how many used this site at one time, but probably no more than half-a-dozen or so.”
Saville described the Howburn Farm site as “a forward camp rather than a base camp”, suggesting it was a temporary home for a hunting party.
The hunters would most likely have been men and younger boys, he said, but archaeologists are still debating how they would have used the stone and flint tools that have been discovered.
“It’s one of the $64,000 questions about this period – whether these small, blunted points were used as tips and barbs of spears or of arrows,” Saville said.
The implements are about 4cm in length, and as many as 40,000 fragments have been uncovered so far.
It appears that the hunters made their own weapons at the campsite, and it may have been visited by several groups over a number of years.
The men would most likely have hunted reindeer and horses, Saville said, citing similarities between their tools and others used for this purpose on the continent.
In those days, Scotland’s climate would have been similar to modern Scandinavia, but a mini ice-age that began about 13,000 years ago sent temperatures plummeting for a 1000-year
period in the interim.
This would have forced hunting parties and their prey back across the North Sea basin towards Denmark and Germany, meaning the humans who roamed Scotland 14,000 years ago were probably not ancestors of modern Scots, unless their descendants returned during one of numerous invasions over the last two millennia.
Saville said the find in Scotland was slightly different in character to other sites in Yorkshire and southern England, and that it had more in common with those in other northern European countries.
The absence of any discoveries in the north of England may point towards a buffer zone between two distinct populations of early nomads.
The nomadic way of life persisted for thousands of years, until the neolithic age saw the advent of farming. Advances in the Bronze and Iron Ages then allowed urban centres to spring up, paving the way for the world as we know it today.
Tam Ward, the amateur archaeologist who led the exploration of Howburn Farm, said his group – the Biggar Archaeological Trust – was turning up new sites every weekend.
“We’re finding mesolithic sites all over the place, dating from about 10,000 years ago to 6000 years,” he said.
The Archaeological Research in Progress Conference 2010 takes place at the Burrell Collection, Pollok Country Park, Glasgow today. Entry is free.
Fuente: The Herald Scotland: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/secrets-of-ancient-scottish-hunters-revealed-by-camp-1.1031197
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