Document record MAB59423 - STONEYHILL

Trial excavation, test-pitting and a watching brief were carried out in this area between 2002 and 2003 by CFA in advance of the extension of Stoneyhill Landfill.

Trial excavation, test-pitting and a watching brief were carried out in this area between 2002 and 2003 by CFA in advance of the extension of Stoneyhill Landfill. A walkover survey identified 16 cairns (see also NK04SE0010), one surrounded by a large flint scatter, mostly knapping debitage. During the trial excavation, flint artefacts and several hammerstones were recovered from Test Pit J, while in another area two phases of activity were recorded: Bronze Age activity in the form of worked flints and numerous post-holes, and land improvements of the 18th and 19th centuries. Three cairns were also excavated along with a flint scatter. Finds included a large quantity of lithics including hammerstones and blades. A complete leaf shaped arrowhead was recovered from one of the cairns as well as sherds and rims of decorated Beaker pottery. The watching brief revealed one further archaeological feature, a possible prehistoric pit or scoop but no artefacts were recovered from this. Final report issued in July 2009 concluded that the fieldwork revealed just how widespread traces of past human activity are within this inauspicious Buchan valley, with most of the test-pit grids revealing lithic assemblages characteristic of settlement-based activity. Overall these activities included a clearance cairn with a Late Bronze Age lithic assemblage and a burial cairn, with Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age lithics and Beaker ceramics. Other lithic scatters of similar date had no certain associations, although pits containing near-contemporary Impressed Wares were nearby. Additional lithic assemblages included material dated to the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic. What may be proto-Unstan Wares in an isolated pit were associated with radiocarbon dates (barley) of the first half of the fourth millennium BC. These findings represent a substantial addition to the local area's archaeological record and form an important contribution to the understanding of lithic technology and ceramics in earlier prehistoric Scotland.

Period Notes
Radiocarbon dates: SUERC-9742 (GU-13907) Humic acid 155+/55 BP; Poz-14557 Naked barley 4540+/-40 BP (which equals 3369 BC - 3098 BC at 2 sigma); Poz-14558 Naked barley 4490+/-35 (which equals 3349 BC - 3031 BC at 2 sigma). The above dates have been calibrated using OxCal 4.2

CARTER, S, 1996, STONEYHILL QUARRY, PETERHEAD: ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION, Walkover survey rep (Bibliographic reference). SAB3859.

SUDDABY, I., 2002, STONEYHILL LANDFILL: SURVEY & EVALUATION: DATA STRUCTURE REPORT (Bibliographic reference). SAB3379.

SURVEY & EVAL

SUDAABY, I., 2003, STONEYHILL LANDFILL: EVALUATION (Bibliographic reference). SAB3378.

EVALUATION

SUDDABY, I., 2003, STONEYHILL LANDFILL: EXCAVATION & WATCHING BRIEF (Bibliographic reference). SAB3373.

TRIAL EX & WB

SUDDABY, I., 2003, STONEYHILL LANDFILL: EXCAVATIONS, TEST PITS & WB (Bibliographic reference). SAB3377.

TRIAL EX & WB

SUDDABY, I, 2004, STONEYHILL LANDFILL, POST-EX & PUBLICATION (Bibliographic reference). SAB4761.

post-ex

CFA, 2009, PREHISTORIC & IMPROVEMENT ERA ARCHAEOLOGY AT ST… (Bibliographic reference). SAB4001.

CFA, 2009, STONEYHILL FARM: POST-MED FEATURES-POST EX REPORT (Bibliographic reference). SAB5213.

SUDDABY, I, 2011, LATE NEOLITHIC AND LATE BRONZE AGE LITHIC ASSEMBLAGES STONEYHILL FARM, LONGHAVEN, PETERHEAD, ABERDEENSHIRE, 2002–03 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1709.

Author unknown, n.d., BUCHAN OBSERVER (Bibliographic reference). SAB113.

Record last edited

Jun 17 2020 11:10AM