Examples of the 14,000 year old flint tools unearthed at Howburn near Biggar. Image: Historic Scotland
Posted on 04/12/2014 4:09:50 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists have uncovered the earliest evidence of the presence of humans in Scotland with an assemblage of over 5,000 flint artefacts which were recovered in 2005-2009 by Biggar Archaeology Group in fields at Howburn, South Lanarkshire. Subsequent studies have dated their use to 14,000 years ago.
Prior to the find, the oldest evidence of human occupation in Scotland could be dated to around 13,000 years ago at a now-destroyed cave site in Argyll, northwest Scotland.
Dating to the very earliest part of the late-glacial period, Howburn is likely to represent the first settlers in Scotland. The flint tools are strikingly close in design to similar finds in northern Germany and southern Denmark from the same period, a link which has helped experts to date them...
The hunters who left behind the flint remains at Howburn came into Scotland in pursuit of game, probably herds of wild horses and reindeer, at a time when the climate improved following the previous severe glacial conditions. Glacial conditions returned once more around 13,000 years ago and Scotland was again depopulated, probably for another 1000 years, after which new groups with different types of flint tools make their appearance.
The nature of the physical connections made between the peoples in Scotland, Germany and southern Denmark is not yet understood. However the similarity in the design of the tools from the two regions offers tantalising glimpses of connections across what would have been dry land, now drowned by the North Sea.
(Excerpt) Read more at pasthorizonspr.com ...
Examples of the 14,000 year old flint tools unearthed at Howburn near Biggar. Image: Historic Scotland
Here are the others I plan to post later, got a full schedule right now. One of these first two will be the Digest ping.
http://bionews-tx.com/news/2014/04/11/researchers-say-neanderthals-attentive-loving-parents/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140409093947.htm
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/04/2014/the-real-flood-submerged-prehistory
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/04/09/remnants-sailendra-dynasty-allegedly-found.html
Ice ages probably made earlier colonization prohibitive if not impossible.
Beware the Luddites. They’re thick around here.
Thanks for the other links. Reading them now in case you don’t post or I don’t get back later on.
When we first saw these rocks, we couldn't understand why most all of them were fractured. Sometimes the fractured pieces were together, though most times we would only find part of a nodule. The weather here is such that it very rarely freezes. Even when it does, chert is not porous enough to entrain water which can freeze and then cause fractures. Many of these rock chips also contained multiple fracture sites, not just a single break. We also found numerous pieces such as the ones in the photograph you linked, as well as a few arrowheads and identifiable tools such as the "Guadalupe biface".
We also found that most other parcels in the region had no chert on them. Our conclusion: We happen to own a quarry site where the natives of thousands of years ago mined and fabricated their flint tools!
That darned global warming.
- Norwegion Viking “Leod the Black” married a Danish Knight’s daughter and was given the Isle of Skye”
Search “Castle Dunvegan” and the McLeod Clan and also their participation in the Crusades
- It will become much clearer - some connections to Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland too -
HEY CIV!!??!! I thought dodo birds were extinct???
***We happen to own a quarry site where the natives of thousands of years ago mined and fabricated their flint tools! ***
Now the FEDs will move in and kick you off so they can “protect” the site as they don’t want anyone picking up an Indian “artfact”.
Of course, if you ask the English, they would say that the first example of humans in Scotland was in 1296 AD, when the English invaded.
I have found the same thing around here with obsidian. An area with nodules will sometimes have tons of flakes and chips but almost no nodules. The injuns would rough out their tools and take them instead of packing the whole nodule around.
And 13.999 years ago the first one was embedded in a proto English skull :-)
Used to kill White Walkers.
Obviously not.
Definitely sounds like it, pretty neat as well. The manufacturing techniques of the stone age weren’t going to make a perfect tool each time, and since it’s stone, those factory seconds are going to be around for a long time. :’)
The glaciation came and went, and came back, and went again, etc, but that probably means the deposits are both deep and moved around. Plus, “Doggerland” has produced human fossils as well as stone tools (now the floor of the North Sea), and when sealevel was lower, people lived down there.
Good advice too, btw.
I remember the pix of that castle from a long-ago Nat Geog. The McLeods have some kind of medieval battle banner that they’ve been invincible when they’ve carried it into battle. Gotta be a little worn by now. :’)
Do Dodo Dodo Do Do Dododo, Dodo Do Do Do Do Dodo Dodo Do Dodo DoDo nobody can do the boogaloo like I do...
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