Observations on the Pre-Neolithic Industries of Scotland

Abstract

The appearance of the Campbeltown tools, taken as a whole, is that of a poor upper palaeolithic series, chiefly consisting of flakes showing a Magdalenian aspect. These flakes were detached from nuclei, the angles of which are sometimes battered, many show no re-working, but numerous notches resulting from use; a small number are re-worked into end scrapers; and one shows a small point in the centre of its semicircular end. The marine 25-30-foot terrace on which the tools were found corresponds also to the Azilian caves at Oban. The difference in period between\r\nthe two groups cannot, then, be very considerable. What characterises nearly all the flints gathered from the Azilian kitchen-middens and contemporary littoral caves of Scotland is that they are not a normal outfit of tools, but with the residue of tools used to such a degree that they were no longer capable of further service. Flint being scarce, the smallest fragments had been used until they were almost completely destroyed. Flakers made of stone, bone and deer-horn were also present in the Azilian deposits of Scotland. The theory that they were used for detaching the edible parts of limpets from their shells is discounted. Bone harpoons from a variety of deposits are also considered.