Mesolithic Archaeology c.8500-4000 BC
- Comments
-
Glasgow Museums has a small collection of Mesolithic artefacts which broadly date from around 8,500 – 4,000 BC. The Mesolithic (‘Middle Stone Age’) is the second earliest period of prehistory. In the area of land now called Scotland, the Mesolithic spanned the time between the end of the last ice age, around 11,700 years ago, and the introduction of farming around 6,000 years ago. Like the Palaeolithic before it, the Mesolithic period saw a huge amount of natural climate change. As the ice melted, the sea levels and temperature rose, increasing vegetation cover and bringing changes to the types of wildlife present. It was also during the Mesolithic period that the remaining land bridge which linked England to Continental Europe was finally submerged under the North Sea, making the area that is now Britain an island. In the Mesolithic period people lived off the land: hunting wildlife, fishing, and gathering other foods such as shellfish, fruit, nuts, berries, and roots. People stayed in temporary camps and also used caves and rock shelters for occupation. Further, there is growing evidence for the construction and use of more substantial sunken-floored structures which may have been occupied seasonally. In coastal areas people discarded tools of stone, bone and antler, seashells, and other wildlife remains in shell middens. On the island of Oronsay in Argyll, a few disarticulated human remains have been found in some of these middens. Other than this, there is no further evidence for what happened to the remains of deceased people at this time in the area of land we now call Scotland. The Mesolithic material held in Glasgow Museums’ collection is mainly from the south and west of Scotland, namely from Argyll, Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, and Galloway. There is also additional material from Highland Council Area and Aberdeenshire Council area. The sites represented are coastal shell middens and coastal and inland stone working sites. Of particular note is the material from shell middens in Argyll, and material from an inland stone-working site at Woodend Loch, near Coatbridge in North Lanarkshire. Artefact types include stone objects such as microliths, scrapers, cores, borers, blades, and flakes. These are predominantly made of flint, but chert, pitchstone, agate, mudstone, and quartz are amongst other stone types represented. Also, there are examples of antler barbed points, antler mattock heads, bevel-ended tools of stone, bone and antler, bone awls, worked pumice stone, and perforated cowrie shells, which may have been used as beads worn as jewellery, or sewn onto clothing or other objects. Additional material includes wildlife remains from animals, fish, birds, crustaceans and shellfish. The Mesolithic material in Glasgow Museums’ collections has been acquired from the 1890s onwards. We are still actively adding to this collection group. It should be noted that only sites which contain solely Mesolithic and related material, or Mesolithic chance finds, are couched under the ‘Mesolithic Archaeology’ heading on the Collections Navigator website. To view Site records with further Mesolithic archaeological material, please look under the ‘Multi-Period Archaeology’ heading or carry out a general search using the term ‘Mesolithic’.
- Broader term
- Staff Contact