The colonization of the Hebridean Islands of Western Scotland: Evidence from the palynological and archaeological records

Edwards, Kevin J.; Mithen, Steven

doi:10.1080/00438243.1995.9980281

Cited by 22 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…10 800), there is a recovery in the percentage values of Juniperus and M. alterniflorum but the major part of LPA_Z WL-4 shows these taxa in steady decline while R. acetosa increases. As was the ease for zone WL-1, the charcoal values are exceedingly low, although the sustained high charcoal to pollen ratios may indicate distant burning [though whether in response to natural or human causes cannot be proved (Edwards and Mithen 1995)]. A marked feature of this zone is a change in lithology.…”

Section: The Lomond Hillsmentioning

confidence: 96%

A 12 000-year record of environmental change in the Lomond Hills, Fife, Scotland: Vegetational and climatic variability

Edwards

Whittington

1997

Veget Hist Archaebot

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The Lomond Hills of Fife, an isolated upland area rising to over 500 m, provide an opportunity to investigate the effect of altitude on vegetation and climate in an area otherwise dominated by lower-lying land. The West Lomond site contains sediments of the Devensian Late-glacial period; they reveal a well-defined sequence of Boiling-Older Dryas-AUerod-Younger Dryas events, commencing ca. 12 190 radiocarbon years B.P. and a probable Amphi-Atlantic Oscillation between ca. 11 040 and 10 800 B.P. The Holocene record is constrained by low sediment input but does reveal a woodland presence at this altitude, dominated by Betula and Corylus. Size statistics for Betula pollen are presented and the implications of the vegetational and climatic record are discussed. The traditional view of a smooth progress towards more temperate conditions following the Younger Dryas is not supported; between 10 180 and 9120 B.P., three cooler periods are inferred, the earliest of which may belong to a terminal phase of the Younger Dryas. Comparative pollen 'influx' data strongly suggest that Quercus, Ulmus and Alnus were not present locally. As a working hypothesis, it is suggested that the demise of woodland, from ca. 5950 B.P., was a result of exposure. Pollen indicative of human impact was probably derived from areas of lowland agricultural activity from ca. 5330 B.P. onwards.

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Section: The Lomond Hillsmentioning

confidence: 96%

A 12 000-year record of environmental change in the Lomond Hills, Fife, Scotland: Vegetational and climatic variability

Edwards

Whittington

1997

Veget Hist Archaebot

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“…This detailed regional study has provided important new information on human-environment interactions during the Holocene in the Oban region with some of its principal findings running counter to recent interpretations of prehistoric, especially Mesolithic, archaeology elsewhere in Atlantic Scotland (Edwards and Mithen, 1995;Finlayson and Edwards, 1997;Edwards and Whittington, 1997). Two of the principal lines of palaeoenvironmental evidence that have been used by other workers to infer a human presence during the Mesolithic and pre-Elm Decline arable farming, namely microscopic charcoal and the occurrence of large Gramineae, in the Oban region appear to be more easily explained in terms of climate change than human activity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Human-environment interactions during the Holocene: new data and interpretations from the Oban area, Argyll, Scotland

et al. 2000

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Investigations of the archaeological, geochemical, microscopic charcoal and palynological records from five localities in the Oban area, along an altitudinal transect from coast to upland, have provided new information on human-environment interactions during the Holocene. Some of the results are at variance with previous interpretations of Mesolithic human impacts and the timing of the transition to farming in Atlantic Scotland. High charcoal values and the occurrence of cereal-type pollen grains, which have commonly been used to infer human activity during the Mesolithic, appear in the Oban area at least to be related to climate change. However, the greater frequency of woodland-decline episodes in inland and upland areas prior to 5000 BP is more easily explained in terms of human impact. Archaeological and palynological evidence indicates that the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the Oban area occurred at c. 5000 BP and, on evidence from elsewhere in northern Britain, coincided with a marked shift to drier climatic conditions. Up until c. 1000 BP agricultural communities appear to have had comparatively little impact on the environment. Thereafter, there was rapid and permanent deforestation possibly linked to the development of a distinctive land-use strategy and settlement pattern that survived until the nineteenth century ad.

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“…The questions put in connection with the discussion of this object is 1) whether it is a microlith or a tanged or single-edged point, and 2) whether it might be an Ahrensburgian tanged point or a Scandinavian-style single-edged point (inter alia Morrison & Bonsall 1989;Saville 1996;Wickham-Jones 1994;Wickham-Jones & Firth 2000;Edwards & Mithen 1995).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…;see overview in Jensen 2006). The Brodgar piece has been touched upon by several Scottish prehistorians (inter alia Morrison & Bonsall 1989;Saville 1996;Wickham-Jones 1994;Wickham-Jones & Firth 2000;Edwards & Mithen 1995), as -if it is truly a tanged point or a piece related to tanged points -it is clearly important to the discussion of the earliest settlement of Scotland, in particular the country's northern parts. However, Livens' drawing of this piece is lacking in detail, and in more recent papers (e.g., some of those listed above), new drawings have been made on the basis of Livens' initial drawing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lost and found twice: Discussion of an early post-glacial single-edged tanged point from Brodgar on Orkney, Scotland

Ballin

Bjerck

2016

JLS

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Abstract:Over the last few decades it has been shown that Scotland was settled -or at least occasionally visited -during the late Upper Palaeolithic period. The finds include diagnostic artefacts of Hamburgian, Federmesser and Ahrensburgian typology, but since Livens' presentation in 1956 of three tanged arrowheads from Scotland, it has also been discussed whether northern Britain was settled or visited from the north-east, by groups belonging to the Scandinavian Fosna-Hensbacka complex. Only one of the three arrowheads presented by Livens appeared to be a Fosna-Hensbacka point, but this piece was lost immediately after the paper in which it was initially summarily described was published. However, this point -originally found at Brodgar on Orkney -has now been refound, and the authors hope that their detailed characterization and discussion of the object's date and affinity will allow the question of a possible Upper Palaeolithic-Early Mesolithic connection across Doggerland to be addressed in a more authoritative manner.

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The colonization of the Hebridean Islands of Western Scotland: Evidence from the palynological and archaeological records

Cited by 22 publications

References 22 publications

A 12 000-year record of environmental change in the Lomond Hills, Fife, Scotland: Vegetational and climatic variability

A 12 000-year record of environmental change in the Lomond Hills, Fife, Scotland: Vegetational and climatic variability

Human-environment interactions during the Holocene: new data and interpretations from the Oban area, Argyll, Scotland

Lost and found twice: Discussion of an early post-glacial single-edged tanged point from Brodgar on Orkney, Scotland

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