Find Spot record MAB49651 - BELTCRAIGS

Lithic scatter recorded during fieldwalking in March 2021 as part of the Mesolithic Deeside Project.

Lithic scatter recorded during fieldwalking in March 2021 as part of the Mesolithic Deeside Project. A total of 622 flaked lithics were recovered, predominantly of flint, and including blades, cores, flakes and spalls. There were also three pieces of worked agate, a flaked quartz crystal and six pieces of flaked quartz/quartzite. Only one microlith was recorded in the assemblage, dating to the Late Mesolithic, with three blades also of similar date. Several types of cores are represented, the most common the single platform core which dates to the Late Mesolithic and/or early Neolithic. Late Neolithic/bronze Age multi-platform cores are also common, and there are a number of bipolar cores of this date. Also of this date are six scrapers. Six tools were awls or probable awls. The lithics were scattered along the length of the field, with two main concentrations each containing a mix of artefact types dating from the Late Mesolithic to the Bronze Age (possibly with a few pieces of Late Upper Palaeolithic/Early Mesolithic date). However, broadly the Late Mesolithic and earlier lithics were found in the southern two-thirds of the field, as is the greater concentration of blades, whilst the Neolithic and later flint work is from the northeast and southwest, the northeast having the greater concentration of flakes. The flint scatter is on the Camphill Terrace, a terrace which appears to be the focus of Late Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic human activity on this reach of the River Dee.

CAMERON ARCHAEOLOGY, 2022, BIRKWOOD, BANCHORY, ABERDEENSHIRE: DATA STRUCTURE REPORT ON TEST PITTING OCTOBER 2022, DSR (Bibliographic reference). SAB8496.

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

Record last edited

Jan 17 2025 11:07AM