The Rubha Port an t-Seilich Project 2017 report The Rubha Port an t-Seilich Project | 2017 The archaeological significance of Rubha Port an t-Seilich is matched “ by its spectacular setting on the east coast of Islay. Having the opportunity to excavate the site is both a privilege and a responsibility. By this we can address key research questions about the human past while also giving The project works University of Reading students closely with Islay an outstanding archaeological Heritage, a Scottish experience, one that expands their Charity (SCO46938) knowledge, develops their skills devoted to furthering and builds their abilities for teamwork. knowledge about Islay’s past, and the many Steven Mithen Professor of Early Prehistory and ” ways in which it can Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Reading, be explored and and Chair of Islay Heritage (SC046938) enjoyed by everyone [email protected] www.islayheritage.org. www.islayheritage.org 1 The Rubha Port an t-Seilich Project | 2017 The straits passing between Islay and Jura provide a major seaway used throughout history and today by sailing boats, kayaks, fishing boats and ferries. Rubha Port an t-Seilich, located close to the present day ferry terminal of Port Askaig, shows that this history of sea travel reaches far back into prehistory. 2 The Rubha Port an t-Seilich Project | 2017 Outer Hebrides The Rubha Port an t-Seilich Project Rubha Port an t-Seilich is located on the east Scotland coast of the Isle of Islay in western Scotland. A small terrace overlooks It is the only site in Scotland the Sound of Islay and is where evidence of ice age Inner Hebrides known to be the past hunter-gatherers is known camping site of prehistoric to remain largely undisturbed, hunter-gatherers between sealed below the debris from 12,000 and 7000 years ago. later settlement. Northern Ireland 3 The Rubha Port an t-Seilich Project | 2017 “THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF WHERE WE WOULD BE SPENDING TWO WEEKS DIGGING WAS BREATHTAKING” 4 The Rubha Port an t-Seilich Project | 2017 Following a site This marked the start of a The project is designed to enables them to undertake this evaluation undertaken multi-year research project provide University of Reading in a remote rural setting and to in 2010 and 2013, the that will utilize a range of students with an opportunity explore the role of heritage within scientific techniques to explore island communities. University of Reading to gain fieldwork experience. Rubha Port an t-Seilich and its begun to excavate At this stage it is anticipated that significance for the prehistory In addition to addressing key Rubha Port an t-Seilich five seasons of excavation will of Scotland and northwest research questions, the project is be required between 2017 and in April 2017. Europe in general. designed to provide University of 2022, with a further three years Reading students with a chance The aim is to recover, analyse of post-excavation analysis. to gain fieldwork experience on a and interpret data pertaining research excavation and acquire to the entire history of activity new skills. The opportunities for at the site and its relevance to students to excavate prehistoric issues of colonization, economic hunter-gatherer settlements are and cultural change in Scotland very sparse. Rubha Port a t-Seilich and northwest Europe. 5 The Rubha Port an t-Seilich Project | 2017 A dramatic period of global period. The only other evidence While the Howburn discovery was The first warming at 14,500 years ago for ice age people in Scotland exciting, it was also frustrating. reduced the ice and brought the had been chance discoveries The stone tools were found in people in first known people to Scotland. of isolated stone points on plough soil and mixed up with These were Palaeolithic hunter- Tiree, Orkney and at Shieldaig not only those of the Mesolithic Scotland? gatherers exploring the NW that many archaeologists but also the later Neolithic and frontier of the ice age world had dismissed as being later Bronze Age periods. There who lost or discarded some of prehistoric in date. were no associated settlement 20,000 years ago, their stone tools at a location remains, and hence no way to at the height of the last That was a sensational now called Howburn in South discover anything more about ice age, Scotland was buried Lanarkshire. find…most archaeologists what must have been intrepid below the North West believed that the first people ice-age explorers. Those tools were discovered in European ice sheet. in Scotland had arrived after 2010, scattered in a ploughed No other traces of the the end of the ice age. field. That was a sensational find Hamburgian culture have been because most archaeologists The Howburn stone tools were found in Scotland. By 13,500 years believed that the first people made in the distinctive style of ago, severe ice age conditions had in Scotland had arrived after the Hamburgian Cultue, known returned. These began to alleviate the end of the ice age at 11,500 from the continent and dated to after 12,000 years ago, after which years ago during the Mesolithic c. 14,500 years ago. there was a dramatic period of 6 The Rubha Port an t-Seilich Project | 2017 The chemical analysis of sediments from Greenland ice cores provides a record of global temperature change, showing dramatic global warming that brought increases at 14,500 and 11,500 years ago, and the ice age to its close. relative stability during the postglacial. In 2013 further evidence for ice age hunter-gatherers was discovered at Rubha Port an t-Seilich on the east coast of Islay. At 20,000 years ago, Scotland No other traces of the was covered by ice sheets, up to a kilometre thick. Hamburgian culture have been found in Scotland. Unlike that from Howburn, these stone tools were still sealed in sediments, providing an opportunity to make the first excavation of an ice age campsite in Scotland. By 12,000 years ago, most of the ice had disappeared while Britain remained joined to the continent by the now drowned landmass of Doggerland. 7 The Rubha Port an t-Seilich Project | 2017 The sharp eyes of the The discovery of ice gamekeeper noticed that the snuffling of pigs had exposed age hunter-gatherers flint flakes on the terrace of Rubha Port an t-Seilich. These at Rubha Port were inspected by Professor Steven Mithen (University of Reading) and identified as being an t-Seilich characteristic of the Mesolithic, a period he had been studying in In the spring of 2009, the Dunlossit western Scotland for many years. Estate set pigs to forage along its land on the east coast of Islay The snuffling of pigs had exposed flint flakes Arhensburgian point as a means to constrain the from Rubha Port an t-Seilich. on the terrace of spread of bracken. Rubha Port an t-Seilich. 8 The Rubha Port an t-Seilich Project | 2017 A test-pit survey was undertaken These [finds] revealed the in 2010 and a test-trench site to be one of the most excavated in 2013. These significant Mesolithic sites revealed the site to be one of the ever discovered in Scotland. most significant Mesolithic sites ever discovered in Scotland: the Sealed below the Mesolithic deposits had abundant stone deposits at the base of the test- tools and the debris from their trench was a thin horizon of manufacture, associated with sediment that – to an expert eye many thousands of fragments of – contained some quite different animal bones and charred plant types of stone tools. These remains. The test-trench had cut had also been made from flint through a Mesolithic fireplace, nodules but the manufacturing constructed in the shelter of large technique and the style of the boulders. Radiocarbon dating stone points produced was indicating the campsite had been indicative of ice-age rather than repeatedly utilized between 9300 Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. and 7700 years ago. 9 The Rubha Port an t-Seilich Project | 2017 The 2013 site evaluation 10 The Rubha Port an t-Seilich Project | 2017 11 The Rubha Port an t-Seilich Project | 2017 This had flourished in To reach western Scotland, they The 2013 test-trench had only Validating continental Europe towards most likely sailed in skin boats exposed a small quantity of the end of the last ice age along the rivers and marshes of that underlying sediment, the discovery around 12,000 years ago, with Doggerland – the now drowned which lacked any material that a few traces known in southern landmass that once connected could be radiocarbon dated. Independent experts agreed England. Although traditionally Britain to Europe – and then Contained within the sediments, that the stone tools interpreted as reindeer hunters, around the north of Scotland to however, was tephra – volcanic recovered from the recent discoveries in Denmark arrive at its west coast, where ash. The end of the ice age and Sweden had suggested the Rubha Port an t-Seilich provided and start of the postglacial lowermost layer at Rubha Ahrensburgian people might an attractive camp site. had been particularly active for Port an t-Seilich had the also have been coastal foragers. volcanic eruptions in Iceland. Recent discoveries in characteristics of the Tephra fell to earth from the ash Ahrensburgian culture. Denmark and Sweden had clouds that crossed Scotland suggested the Ahrensburgian and became embedded into people might also have been the accumulating sediments at coastal foragers. Rubha Port an t-Seilich. 12 The Rubha Port an t-Seilich Project | 2017 Each eruption produced tephra with a distinct chemical Full details of the recovery, analysis and composition, and several of interpretation of the these have been accurately 2010 and 2013 finds dated.