Abstract
This paper discusses the evidence for periodic human activity in the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland from the late 9th millennium to the early 4th millennium calbc. While contemporary paradigms for Mesolithic Europe acknowledge the significance of upland environments, the archaeological record for these areas is not yet as robust as that for the lowland zone. Results of excavation at Chest of Dee, along the headwaters of the River Dee, are set into a wider context with previously published excavations in the area. A variety of site types evidences a sophisticated relationship between people and a dynamic landscape through a period of changing climate. Archaeological benefits of the project include the ability to examine novel aspects of the archaeology leading to a more comprehensive understanding of Mesolithic lifeways. It also offers important lessons in site survival, archaeological investigation, and the management of the upland zone.
Highlights
IntroductionInterpretations of the Mesolithic argue for the sophisticated use of a variety of landscapes, yet the exigencies of survival and recovery mean that research in north-west Europe has tended to focus on the coast and the lower reaches of river valleys
While contemporary paradigms for Mesolithic Europe acknowledge the significance of upland environments, the archaeological record for these areas is not yet as robust as that for the lowland zone
Interpretations of the Mesolithic argue for the sophisticated use of a variety of landscapes, yet the exigencies of survival and recovery mean that research in north-west Europe has tended to focus on the coast and the lower reaches of river valleys
Summary
Interpretations of the Mesolithic argue for the sophisticated use of a variety of landscapes, yet the exigencies of survival and recovery mean that research in north-west Europe has tended to focus on the coast and the lower reaches of river valleys. While upland sites are reasonably common in some areas (Spikins 2002; Preston 2013), in Scotland, a country dominated in some regions by its highlands, such sites are still rarely documented, isolated, and poorly contextualised (Edwards 1996; Atkinson 2016). This scarcity of sites is perhaps unsurprising. We report on an interdisciplinary project in the eastern highlands of Scotland, the Upper Dee Tributaries Project (UDTP), where recently excavated evidence indicates long-term use of the Scottish uplands in the Mesolithic. During the most intense climatic deterioration in the Holocene, centred on c. 6200 cal BC (Alley & Ágústdottir 2005) the high Cairngorm may have supported comparable glacial conditions (Harrison et al 2014)
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