Stepping stones to the Neolithic? Islands, maritime connectivity and the ‘western seaways’ of Britain, 5000-3500 BC

Duncan Garrow (Liverpool/Reading) & Fraser Sturt (Southampton)

Stepping stones to the Neolithic? Islands, maritime connectivity and the ‘western seaways’ of Britain, 5000-3500 BC

Duncan Garrow (Liverpool) & Fraser Sturt (Southampton)

3 year project on the Mesolithic/Neolithic transition

(funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council)

The Neolithic

The transition: ‘colonisation’ v ‘indigenous adoption’

10,000 BC

4,000 BC

c. 4000 BC

c. 5000 BC

22

miles

The delay...

The western seaways... key to understanding the transition

Fox 1932

Sheridan 2010

Callaghan & Scarre 2009

Whittle, Healy & Bayliss 2011

The spread of the Neolithic across Britain and Ireland

Western seaways: implicated but not really explored...

4495-4195 cal BC (95%)

4300-3700 BC (?)

Icons of 5th M. contact: the Ferriter’s Cove cow bones and the Acnacreebeag pot

The western seaways themselves: islands

The western seaways themselves: the sea

Objectives

• Achieve a greater understanding of the processes behind and chronology of the

Mesolithic-Neolithic transition within the western seaways zone

www.neolithicsteppingstones.org

Objectives

• Achieve a greater understanding of the processes behind and chronology of the

Mesolithic-Neolithic transition within the western seaways zone

• Construct a database of all known Late Mesolithic/Early Neolithic settlement sites within

the western seaways zone + submit bid for radiocarbon dates

• Excavate three key sites (Guernsey, South Uist, Isles of Scilly) to enhance record

• Model the changing nature of Holocene coastline morphology and connecting seaways

www.neolithicsteppingstones.org

Other stuff

• Conference in 2013 (Liverpool) on ‘cross channel connections in prehistory’

• Open days, public lectures, museum displays in each island group

• Project website: www.neolithicsteppingstones.org

• Twitter: @Neolithic_steps

• Past sea levels simulation (Google Earth)

• Western seaways navigation game (Google Earth)

www.neolithicsteppingstones.org

Back to the archaeology...

5th M. islands...

Orkney & Outer Hebrides

• Record v. patchy and only recently appreciated

• Sustained clearances (pollen)

• Sustained occupation?

Inner Hebrides

• Regular island hopping

• “Important highway” (Hardy & Wickham-Jones

2002)

• Possibly similar on closer inspection

Saville 2000

5th M. islands...

Isle of Man

• Connected to Ireland (through stone tools)

• Separate from Britain?

• Or signalling difference because of contact?

(McCartan 2004)

• Early (possible) cereal pollen

5th M. islands...

Isles of Scilly

• Record very patchy/sparse

• But definite Mesolithic presence

• Possibly seasonal visits for hunting, fishing,

etc.?

5th M. islands...

Channel Islands

• Neolithic arrives c. 4800 (?)

• Strong connections with each other, and with

mainland France

• Tomb types, pottery styles, stone axes,

polished stone rings, etc.

• Similar picture in 4th M.

Early 4th M. islands...

Isles of Scilly

• Ephemeral occupation (pits, etc.)

• Possibly seasonal visits for hunting, fishing,

etc.?

• Hembury Ware – 3750-3500 BC

C. Johns pers. comm.

Isle of Man

• Patchy picture – post-holes, pits

• Shouldered bowl / Mull Hill pottery – 3700-

3300 BC

Outer Hebrides

• Some fairly stone substantial buildings

• Unstan and ‘Hebridean’ Ware pottery

• 3720-3370 cal BC

Orkney

• Several substantial buildings now

• Stone and timber built

• Unstan Ware pottery

• c. 3700-3400 cal BC

Early 4th M. islands...

Summary...

5th millennium archaeology

• Regular short-distance sea travel

• Definite long-distance voyages too

- Channel Islands/France

- Cornwall(?)/Isles of Scilly

- Isle of Man /Scotland/Ireland

- France/Ferriter’s Cove

- France /Achnacreebeag (?)

• ‘Mesolithic’ and ‘Neolithic’ people involved

Summary...

Early 4th millennium archaeology

• earliest Neolithic dates – 3750-3300 BC

• material culture local not long-distance

• if we are seeing 5th M. continental mariners,

they are not obviously colonising the islands

• Neolithic seems to have local and late origins

... at least as far as we can tell now

Lindsay Scott 1950

(Eilean an Tighe)

Whittle, Healy & Bayliss 2011

Stepping Stones project excavations...

L’Eree

L’Eree, Guernsey (2008-11)

L’Eree, Guernsey (2008-11)

L’Eree, Guernsey (2008-11)

• Material culture c. 4800-4000 BC (+ EBA)

• Features possibly throughout that period

• C14 date for hearth of 4330-4060 cal BC

• Sporadic, ephemeral, repeated occupation

Les Fouaillages, Guernsey (c.4800 BC)

Royal Hotel, Guernsey (c.4900-4700 BC)

The arrival of the Neolithic in the Channel Islands

Stepping Stones project excavations...

An Doirlinn,

South Uist

An Doirlinn, South Uist

An Doirlinn, South Uist (2005)

• Investigated by Sharples et al. in 2005

• Lots of flint and pottery (potentially Early Neolithic)

• Probable stone walls

An Doirlinn, South Uist (2012)

An Doirlinn, South Uist (2012)

Eilean Domhnuill, Loch Olabhat, North Uist (Armit 1980s/90s)

Stepping Stones project excavations...

Old Quay,

St Martin’s

Old Quay,St Martin’s (2013)

Old Quay,St Martin’s (2013)

• Series of test pits

• Larger open area excavation

Old Quay,St Martin’s (2013)

Mesolithic microliths

Neolithic pit(s)

• Mesolithic flintwork

• Neolithic pits with pottery and quartz

• Date span c. 8000-3500 BC

Old Quay,St Martin’s (2013)

C. Johns pers. comm.

• Mesolithic flintwork

• Neolithic pits with pottery and quartz

• Date span c. 8000-3500 BC

Old Quay,St Martin’s (2013)

C. Johns pers. comm.

The sea and seafaring

Understanding seafaring

Understanding seafaring

Seafaring

3500 BC

c. 1560BC

?

Reference: Case, H. 1969. Neolithic Explanations. Antiquity XLIII pp. 176-186

Why are we interested in the sea?

Texture: texture of past seascapes

Quantifying change

quantifying change: sea level

h(t) = h(to) – Δζrsl (t) +σh

Lambeck, K. 2004.

quantifying change: Eustatic sea level

quantifying change: erosion and sedimentation

σh

The Pleistocene story

The Holocene

quantifying change: GIA Models

11,000 BP

10,000 BP

9,000 BP

8,000 BP

7,000 BP

6,000 BP

5,000 BP

4,000 BP

Google earth files of these

models are free to

download from

www.neolithicsteppingston

es.org

Or read the open access

paper in the Journal of

Archaeological Science

(2013)

But a regionally variable story …

Citation: Crawford, OGS, 1927. Lyonesse, Antiquity I, 5-

14

Image source: http://www.cismas.org.uk/samson-flats-

survey.php

Source: Charman, D, Bayliss, A, Camidge, K, Fyfe, R, Johns, C, Meadows, J, Mills, S, Mulville, J, Roberts, H M, and Stevens, T, in

press. The Lyonesse Project: evolution of the coastal and marine environment of Scilly (Truro: HE Projects, Cornwall Council)

Source: Charman, D, Bayliss, A, Camidge, K, Fyfe, R, Johns, C, Meadows, J, Mills, S, Mulville, J, Roberts, H M, and Stevens, T, in

press. The Lyonesse Project: evolution of the coastal and marine environment of Scilly (Truro: HE Projects, Cornwall Council)

The western seaways... key to understanding the transition

Open Day Saturday 21st September

11am-4pm