Post by Vinny on Oct 13, 2022 9:20:30 GMT
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-63158291
Love archeology.
Hunter-gatherer rest stop uncovered in Cairngorms
Archaeologists believe they have found a place where some of Scotland's last hunters-gatherers may have paused on a journey through the Cairngorms.
Scotland was home to hunter-gatherers from about 10,000 years ago, after the end of the last ice age.
At Sgòr an Eòin in Glen Dee, archaeologists have uncovered artefacts that could date from that time in the Mesolithic period.
Hunter-gatherer sites have been found at other locations in the Cairngorms.
Teams of experts from University College Dublin (UCD) have been surveying for and excavating Mesolithic sites in the Aberdeenshire glen since 2013.
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Evidence of hunter-gatherers were found at Geldie Burn and Chest of Dee in earlier phases of the work, and confirmed through radiocarbon dating.
Sgòr an Eòin, a flat area on an ancient river terrace on National Trust for Scotland's Mar Lodge Estate, has been an area of interest since the site was discovered in 2015.
FlintImage source, Graeme Warren
Image caption,
Flints, a by-product of stone tool manufacture, have been found at Sgòr an Eòin
Presentational white space
Prof Graeme Warren, of the School of Archaeology at UCD, joked: "For a long time I thought this was a cursed site.
"We had money to go back there in 2019 and about four weeks before we were due to start work National Trust for Scotland phoned us up and said there was a peregrine falcon nesting on the cliffs, so we couldn't go there.
"Then in 2020 the Covid pandemic stopped us going."
The planned work finally started in 2021 and a team returned to the site this year.
Archaeologists believe they have found a place where some of Scotland's last hunters-gatherers may have paused on a journey through the Cairngorms.
Scotland was home to hunter-gatherers from about 10,000 years ago, after the end of the last ice age.
At Sgòr an Eòin in Glen Dee, archaeologists have uncovered artefacts that could date from that time in the Mesolithic period.
Hunter-gatherer sites have been found at other locations in the Cairngorms.
Teams of experts from University College Dublin (UCD) have been surveying for and excavating Mesolithic sites in the Aberdeenshire glen since 2013.
The latest headlines from Scotland
Read more stories from North East Scotland, Orkney and Shetland
Evidence of hunter-gatherers were found at Geldie Burn and Chest of Dee in earlier phases of the work, and confirmed through radiocarbon dating.
Sgòr an Eòin, a flat area on an ancient river terrace on National Trust for Scotland's Mar Lodge Estate, has been an area of interest since the site was discovered in 2015.
FlintImage source, Graeme Warren
Image caption,
Flints, a by-product of stone tool manufacture, have been found at Sgòr an Eòin
Presentational white space
Prof Graeme Warren, of the School of Archaeology at UCD, joked: "For a long time I thought this was a cursed site.
"We had money to go back there in 2019 and about four weeks before we were due to start work National Trust for Scotland phoned us up and said there was a peregrine falcon nesting on the cliffs, so we couldn't go there.
"Then in 2020 the Covid pandemic stopped us going."
The planned work finally started in 2021 and a team returned to the site this year.