Abstract
For over 120 years, the shell middens of western Scotland and the series of open-air sites on Oronsay have been the focus of debate in European Mesolithic studies. This paper challenges the significance of Oronsay in light of results from the geophysical survey and test-excavation of a new limpet and periwinkle shell midden dated to the late 5th or start of the 4th millennium calbcat Port Lobh, Colonsay that offers fresh evidence to re-evaluate critically the role of Oronsay and coastal resources in island settlement models ahead of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition. Test excavations recovered a marine molluscan assemblage dominated by limpet and periwinkle shells together with crab, sea urchin, a fishbone assemblage composed mainly of Gadidae, some identifiable bird and mammal bone, carbonised macroplant remains, and pumice as well as a bipolar lithic assemblage and coarse stone implements. Novel seasonality studies of saithe otolith thin-sections suggest wintertime tidal fishing practices. At least two activity events may be discerned, dating from the late 5th millennium calbc. The midden could represent a small number of rapidly deposited assemblages or maybe the result of stocastic events within a more extended timeframe. We argue that alternative research questions are needed to advance long-standing debates about seasonal inter-island mobility versus island sedentism that look beyond Oronsay to better understand later Mesolithic occupation patterns and the formation and date of Oronsay middens. We propose alternative methodological strategies to aid identification of contemporaneous sites using geophysical techniques and lithic technological signatures.
Highlights
The prehistoric shell midden sites on the small island of Oronsay, off the coast of Colonsay (Scottish Inner Hebrides), have been the subject of much debate since the late 19th century (Anderson 1898)
In contrast to this model of Oronsay sedentism, it has been argued that the shell middens resulted from short-term and intermittent occupation by groups based primarily elsewhere, such as on the neighbouring islands of Colonsay, Jura, and Islay
The chipped stone artefacts are similar in both technology and condition to those found at the Oronsay midden sites namely, heavily corticated beach-pebble flint flakes and cores fashioned using direct platform percussion and bipolar strategies
Summary
The prehistoric shell midden sites on the small island of Oronsay, off the coast of Colonsay (Scottish Inner Hebrides), have been the subject of much debate since the late 19th century (Anderson 1898). Clear understandings of the role of Oronsay in inter-island settlement and subsistence models at this critical period still appear beyond grasp In this contribution we propose that current debate needs to move forward and away from these opposed positions and mobility versus sedentism models. The fieldwork, undertaken in 2005–6, demonstrated the efficacy of close-interval geophysical techniques as a means of developing tools for the characterisation of gatherer-hunter type-sites of this type (Finlay & McAllen 2009) This identified further, previously unknown, shell-rich deposits producing the first radiocarbon dated Iron Age occupation evidence on the island (Finlay et al 2019). We examine the wider implications of Port Lobh for investigating later Mesolithic resource use and the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition and conclude with a call to move on debate
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