This paper describes the discovery of the first open-air Upper Palaeolithic site to be found in Scotland, at Howburn, near Biggar in SouthLanarkshire. An account is given of the composition and distribution of the lithic assemblage, which is discussed in terms of its British and north-west European context. Provisional parallels drawn are with the Late Hamburgian (Havelte) sites and assemblages of southern Scandinavia, northern Germany and the Netherlands. There is no absolute dating evidence for the site, but an age in the region of 12,000 14 C yr BP, towards the end of the earlier (Bølling) Lateglacial Interstadial stage, is proposed on the basis of the lithic artefacts.introduction BackgroundAs part of the field-walking campaigns for its 'Prehistory North of Biggar Project', the Biggar Archaeology Group (BAG) investigated an arable field at Howburn Farm, Elsrickle, South Lanarkshire, in southern Scotland. The field was walked by the BAG on four occasions between 2003-2005, producing a range of prehistoric lithic artefacts and potsherds, mainly from the upper eastern part of the field close to a stream course. Thousands of lithic artefacts were recovered, mostly of flint and chert, with occasional pieces of pitchstone and Cumbrian tuff (polished axehead fragments). Diagnostic types and attributes suggested that the field-walked chert artefacts were mainly Later Mesolithic in date and the Arran pitchstone and polished axeheads were of Early Neolithic date. Most of the flint was thought to date to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age period. These typo-chronological estimates seemed supported in part by the recovery of Neolithic pottery (plain carinated bowl sherds as well as impressed and Beaker sherds and Grooved Ware) in and nearby to the field.In 2005 field-walking located a previously unnoticed concentration of flint and chert artefacts in an area approximately 40 m in diameter at one spot on the eastern side of the field. This concentration, marked especially by a higher presence and larger size of artefacts of flint than elsewhere in the field, was assumed to have been brought to the surface because of fresh disturbance by ploughing. Accordingly, an exploratory excavation was undertaken by the BAG OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 29(4) 323-360 2010

Summary A newly recognized tanged flint point from Shieldaig in north‐west Scotland is described and discussed in terms of its potential as an indicator of Lateglacial human settlement.

1Prehistoric sites with quartz assemblages, or substantial quartz sub-assemblages. Shetland: 1) Bayanne, 2) Scord of Brouster, 3) Kebister, 4) Cruester, 5) Burland, 6) Tougs, 7) Catpund, 8) Sumburgh, 9) Jarlshof. Western Isles: 10) Barvas, 11) Dalmore, 12) Olcote, 13) Calanais, 14) Cnoc Dubh (quarry), 15) Valtos, 16) Northton, 17) Udal, 18) Eilean Domhnuill, 19) Rosinish.

In 2002, an examination was carried out of a small quartz vein at the knoll of Cnoc Dubh, a few hundred metres from the southern shores of Loch Ceann Hulabhig on the Isle of Lewis (NGR NB 2318 2998). The vein proved to have been worked in prehistoric time, defining it as a quarry, and it was measured, photographed and characterized. In the present paper, the Cnoc Dubh quartz quarry is presented in detail, to allow comparison with other lithic quarries, and it is attempted to define attributes diagnostic of prehistoric exploitation, and to schematically describe the 'mining operations' by which the quartz was procured. As part of this process,quartz quarrying is compared to the procurement of other lithic and stone raw materials, mainly drawing on research from Scandinavia, Australia and the USA, and the location of quartz quarries in relation to prehistoric settlements is discussed. The average distance between quartz sources and Neolithic - Bronze Age sites on Lewis is then used to discuss ownership of, and access to, prehistoric quartz sources, as well as the possible exchange of quartz.

The present paper discusses how post-glacial sea level rises may have led to material cultural diversification and 'atomization' of geographically extensive cultures or social territories. The resulting smaller social territories, with their associated material cultures, subsequently began to merge, possibly due to the development of better means of transport. Where the North Sea, at the beginning of this process of material diversification, represented a growing barrier to contacts, it later became a means of communication. In this paper, dates for material cultures follow those of Vang Petersen (1993).