Find Spot record MAB49633 - MILTON COTTAGE, CRATHES

Mesolithic flint scatter.

Mesolithic flint scatter. Flints were recovered from the eastern field by Dr Grieve (Grieve's Site F). Recent analysis of the collection identified flakes, blades, two cores, and two scrapers amongst the material. Further concentrations of flints were recorded by fieldwalking carried out between 2008-12 by OFARS (which also included another four fields to the east, see also NO79NE0022, NO79NE0099, NO79NE0021). The area includes known cropmarks (see NO79NW0038). Although the bulk of material from the project was along the middle river terrace the flints from this site (Milton Cottage - MC) was mostly on the higher areas along the river bank (the lower terrace). The concentrations were less intensive than in the fields to the east. The flints include cores, Mesolithic broad blade and narrow blade microliths, scrapers, blades and flakes. Geophysical, topographical and aerial survey was carried out in 2017 to provide background information about the site. Further fieldwalking was carried out by the Mesolithic Deeside Project in March 2021, and a total of 1,201 lithics recovered, including a macehead. Analysis of the flints from this fieldwalking and test pitting in November 2021 identified a total of 1380 flaked lithics, including blades, flakes, retouched tools, cores and worked pebbles, and spalls. The majority are of flint was small numbers using quartz, quartzite, rhyolite, chalcedony and agate. A large (59 mm long) blade of rhyolite is likely to be of Late Upper Palaeolithic or Early Mesolithic date. Rhyolite is known to have been knapped around Chest of Dee during the Mesolithic. A geometric microlith of chalcedony dates to the Early Mesolithic. The 84 cores include a range of core types indicating that flint was knapped using different technologies and over several millennia, although the dominant form is the single platform blade core dating to the Late Mesolithic. There is also some evidence for core working prior to the Late Mesolithic and in the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age. Retouched lithics exhibit a wide range of tool types, the most common being scrapers and edge retouched pieces. The earliest tools are two short end scrapers dating to the Late Upper Palaeolithic. Late Mesolithic tools include five narrow blade microliths, a microburin, a small awl and six notched blades. Two knives date to the Late Neolithic, and three thumbnail scrapers may date to the Early Bronze Age. The macehead is thought likely to be Late Neolithic. Three radiocarbon samples in 2022 provided Mesolithic dates of 5624 BC and 5882-5728 BC, and a Late Neolithic date of 2859-2501 BC. The site lies on the Camphill Terrace of the River Dee which dates to the Late Devensian Dimlington Stadial (earlier than the Late Upper Palaeolithic lithics on the surface at Milton Cottage) although in the southeast parts of the site are older sand and younger sand in an incised valley. A further programme of test pitting and geoarchaeological analyses was carried out in October 2023, concentrated on this area of older sand. The older sand began filling the channel in the early 6th millennium BC, higher levels of the sand indicating sediments building a flood plain, with finer sediments deposited within the 4th millennium. Lithic finds on the areas of these sands are likely to have been spread by floods from the Camphill Terrace. The test pitting recovered 100 flaked lithic, six of which are quartzite, the rest flint. The assemblage is dominated by flakes and small flakes, but includes 16 blades, two cores (one single platform, the other multi-platform), a split pebble and five retouched tools. Two microburins are the product of controlled blade snapping to produce blanks for microliths. Over a third of the assemblage came from one pit, including the greater proportion of blades, cores and retouched tools. The blade technology and use of microburin technique suggests activity in this location during the Late Mesolithic and earlier.

Period Notes
Radiocarbon dating 05/09/2022: SUERC-105795 (GU61262) 6754 +/- 27 BP, calibrated to 5624 BC at 2 sigma, material hazelnut; SUERC-105796 (GU61263) 6919 +/- 27 BP, calibrated to 5882 - 5728 BC at 2 sigma, material charcoal; SUERC-105800 (GU61264) 4096 +/- 27 BP, calibrated to 2859 - 2501 BC at 2 sigma, material peat.

KENNEY, J, 1993, THE BEGINNINGS OF AGRICULTURE IN GREAT BRITAIN: A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT (Bibliographic reference). SAB2784.

GRIEVE, DR. J.R., 2005, THE MESOLITHIC OCCUPATION SITES OF DEESIDE IN KINCARDINESHIRE (Bibliographic reference). SAB2609.

ARCHAEOLOGY SCOTLAND, 2012, DISCOVERY AND EXCAVATION IN SCOTLAND. NEW SERIES, VOLUME 12, 2011, p. 12 (Bibliographic reference). SAB5536.

TIPPING, R, 2017, NETHERMILLS OF CRATHES: FIELDWORK 15-16 MARCH 2017 (Bibliographic reference). SAB3409.

BATES, R, 2017, TOPOGRAPHIC AND ELECTROMAGNETIC GROUND CONDUCTIVITY SURVEY, CRATHES, Draft (Bibliographic reference). SAB3828.

TIPPING, R, 2018, MESOLITHIC DEESIDE: TERRACE STRATIGRAPHY AND SEDIMENTS BETWEEN CRATHES AND DRUMOAK (Bibliographic reference). SAB1998.

BJARKE BALLIN, T, 2019, THE GRIEVE COLLECTION: CHARACTERISATION AND DISCUSSION OF LITHIC ASSEMBLAGES ON THE DEE, ABERDEENSHIRE (Bibliographic reference). SAB3805.

WICKHAM-JONES, C, 2020, NETHERMILLS FARM: ANATOMY OF A LITHIC SCATTER IN BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGY 170, 39-43 (Bibliographic reference). SAB3442.

MESOLITHIC DEESIDE PROJECT, 2021, MESOLITHIC DEESIDE FIELD NOTES 2021 (Bibliographic reference). SAB7543.

CAMERON ARCHAEOLOGY, 2021, MILTON COTTAGE, MILTON OF CRATHES: METHOD STATEMENT (Bibliographic reference). SAB8656.

WICKHAM-JONES, C, 2021, PREHISTORIC COMMUNITIES OF THE RIVER DEE: MESOLITHIC AND OTHER LITHIC SCATTER SITES OF CENTRAL DEESIDE, ABERDEENSHIRE'. (Bibliographic reference). SAB3453.

CLARKE, A, 2022, MILTON COTTAGE, ABERDEENSHIRE: A SHORT REPORT ON THE LITHICS FROM TEST PITTING CA571 AND MC1 FIELDWALKING 2020 (Bibliographic reference). SAB8239.

CAMERON, A, 2022, MILTON COTTAGE, MILTON OF CRATHES: DATA STRUCTURE REPORT FOR TEST PITTING 11-14 NOVEMBER 2021 (Bibliographic reference). SAB8494.

CLARKE, A, 2024, CA571 OCTOBER 2023 MILTON COTTAGE TEST PITTING THE LITHIC ASSEMBLAGE (Bibliographic reference). SAB8668.

TIPPING, R, 2024, MILTON COTTAGE AND BIRKWOOD (Bibliographic reference). SAB3414.

CAMERON, A, 2024, MILTON COTTAGE, MILTON OF CRATHES: DATA STRUCTURE REPORT FOR TEST PITTING 4-8 OCTOBER 2023 (CA571) (Bibliographic reference). SAB8823.

CLARKE, A, 2024, PREHISTORIC COMMUNITIES OF THE RIVER DEE: MESOLITHIC AND OTHER LITHIC SITES OF CENTRAL DEESIDE, ABERDEENSHIRE 2020-2022
(Bibliographic reference). SAB8671.

CLARKE, A, 2024, PREHISTORIC COMMUNITIES OF THE RIVER DEE: MESOLITHIC AND OTHER LITHIC SITES OF CENTRAL DEESIDE, ABERDEENSHIRE 2020-2022
(Bibliographic reference). SAB8671.

RCAHMS, n.d., N KINC LIST, No7 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1509.

FLINTS

Record last edited

Jan 17 2025 10:58AM