Mesolithic site on Skye to be investigated

Excavations of a Mesolithic site on Skye could give new insights into the lives of some of the island's earliest residents.

Archaeologists believe the location above Staffin Bay has the remains of a house that could be 8,000 years old.

Mesolithic flints have previously been found in an area of eroded grazing land near the site.

Archaeologists will work with Staffin Community Trust and volunteers in making small excavations.

The University of the Highlands and Islands' Archaeology Institute will lead the investigation.

Archaeologist Dan Lee said the dig at the site of "important prehistoric occupation" had "huge potential".

Staffin Community Trust director Dugald Ross added: "Despite Staffin having a wealth of prehistoric remains, this is the area's first archaeological excavation in 20 years and its Mesolithic potential is intriguing and exciting."

Image copyright Staffin Community Trust Image caption Volunteers will help in making small excavations near An Corran

During the Mesolithic period, also known as the Middle Stone Age, Scotland was inhabited by hunter-gatherers who lived off the wild resources of the land and sea.

Important finds from the period have been made elsewhere in the Highlands and Islands.

Four years ago, archaeologists said they believed the remains of burned oak uncovered at the site of the first Sainsbury's in the Highlands was evidence of an ancient "rest stop".

Radiocarbon dating of the hearth, found in an investigation conducted before the supermarket was built in Nairn, placed it in the Mesolithic period.

The site on Staffin is near An Corran where there are footprints left by dinosaurs 165 million years ago.

What is preferred DNA testing service?

I don't know what the preferred service is, but I used National Geographic's Geno 2.0. Nat Geo says they they examine your DNA against a collection of almost 150,000 DNA markers that give "ancestry-relevant information."

For males they trace both the ancestral origin of your paternal line (the father of the father of the father and so on) and the same thing for your maternal line (the mother of the mother of the mother, etc.). My surname, is Scottish in origin, so Nat Geo's finding of a Western Scottish Isles origin of my male line is consistent with that.

My parental ancestor who migrated to America did so hundreds of years ago. Nat Geo can't determine something that recent on my line as they don't have enough DNA samples with mutations whose origins they have managed to pin down. It is a giant puzzle. I suspect the most recent paternal ancestor of mine whose location they determined to be the Western Isles of Scotland was in Scotland maybe at least 1,000 years ago or perhaps much longer than that. The more samples of different peoples' DNA they get and analyze, the better they will be able in the future to provide locations of the more recent ancestors in your direct paternal and maternal lines.

They do trace both the paternal and maternal lines all the way back to the first peoples to leave Africa. They tell you what parts of the world your paternal and maternal lines migrated through and when they were there.

They also give you what percentage of your DNA came from Neanderthals and Denisovans (our cousins on the human tree), and they speculate what parts of the globe that intermixing occurred.

I think women who have their DNA analyzed by Nat Geo only get their maternal line because women do not have the Y chromosome that men have. I don't know, but there may be future advances in DNA testing that allow women to get their parental DNA line as well.

Nat Geo also uses 130,000 DNA markers to look at your entire genome to give you generalized insight on ancestors who are not on your direct paternal or maternal lines. You had two grandfathers, four great grandfathers, and so on. Only one of those four great grandfathers is on the paternal line that they trace the origin of. The contributions of the other three grandfathers are not included in the line of fathers of fathers of fathers, etc., but their contributions do show up in Nat Geo's analysis of your entire genome. You can't tell from that alone which specific ancestor gave you a specific contribution to your DNA.

I was surprised to learn that I had a small percentage of Native American DNA in my DNA. There was a family rumor that somewhere back in our family tree was a part American Indian. The DNA confirmed it. It wasn't on my direct paternal or maternal lines, but it was in one of my other lines of ancestors. We think we know the tribe from genealogical information, not DNA information.

I now know I have more American Indian DNA than Elizabeth Warren. Actually, that doesn't surprise me.

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