Professor Graeme Warren FSAScot led a team of students and volunteers to carry out fieldwork in the Cairngorms around the site of a Mesolithic lithic scatter. 

Excavations at Sgòr an Eòin took place Tues 5th Sept to Sat 16th Sept 2023 with a team of 7-10 people including volunteers from Mesolithic Deeside. This provided a total of 91 “people days”. We were joined in the field by Philippe de Smedt and Jeroen Verhegge (Univ Gent) who sampled in order to characterize the magnetic signal of archaeological activity, especially magnetic remanence. The weather was excellent, and we made great progress – completing the excavation of the trench started in 2022. Our results from 2023 confirm some of our 2022 interpretations, and refine key aspects of the history of the site.

Figure 1: Sgòr an Eòin 2023: post-excavation view, facing northwest.

The artefact scatter comprises 327 finds and is tightly defined to the east, but less so to the west. The assemblage is entirely of flint, and is mainly small and fragmentary with burning common. A small number of unusual, and one classic, microburins were identified, but no other formal tool types. Interestingly, assessments in the field suggest that a large proportion of the blades and flakes on site were made with soft hammer percussion. Further work is required, but this might suggest an early date.

Figure 2 Sgòr an Eòin: distribution of finds.

Artefacts continued to be recovered from within 15-20cm of a fine sand that forms a small rise on a glacial outwash terrace. In 2023 excavations at the west of site have demonstrated that this knoll was cut by a water course, with artefacts recovered from within redeposited gravels at the west indicating that this episode of erosion post-dated the archaeological activity. Dating this channel will provide a terminus ante quem for the occupation.

Excavations in 2023 also provided more information about the upper horizon of the artefact bearing sands. In brief, this appears to have been washed by water at some stage after occupation – with peat and sands visible in channels. It is possible that this removed lighter material, such as charcoal: analysis of our samples will explore this possibility.

We also opened a small trench on the other side of the water course, in an area where test pits had returned artefacts in 2021. This did not recover any more lithics, but a possible fire setting was identified and sampled.

Our field interpretations therefore offer some nuance to our previous understanding of the site.

• Archaeological activity leading to the deposition of stone tools took place on a small rise on a Late Glacial terrace. Technologically and typologically this is Mesolithic in age, possibly early in that period.
• The site was washed by floods, potentially removing lighter materials
• The rise was cut by a water course
• Bioturbation mixed artefacts through the fine sands on the surface of the knoll: this seemingly incorporated Bronze Age charcoal as well, mixing this with the assemblage.
• Peat formation takes place and seals the site, creating the conditions for podsolisation

Further post excavation work will refine this narrative and provide a more robust chronological framework. This includes a peat monolith in the channel immediately west of the site. Fieldwork in 2024, to be funded by UCD, will comprise an intensive auguring survey to provide the immediate landscape context of the site, including areas where finds were made in test pits in 2021. If comparable landforms are identified we will test pit these.

Figure 3: Sgòr an Eòin 2023: Trench One in foreground, Trench Two background