◊ Dear Microburins,

The University of Reading today issued a press release on exciting Late Glacial finds and geo-archaeological evidence from Islay, Inner Hebrides, Scotland. Trial excavations in 2013 have, literally, just scratched the surface.

“The archaeologists are grateful to the game-keeper who came across the Mesolithic objects after the pigs, who were released on Islay to reduce bracken, unearthed them, and thankful to the resident who knew of the earlier work the Reading team had conducted on the island, and tipped the researchers off.

Several layers of volcanic ash were found at Rubha Port an t-Seilich coming from both above and below the stone artefacts. This has enabled the team to date them [Tephrochronology] at 12,000 years old, 3000 years older than any previous discovery on Islay.”

• University of Reading press release 09-Oct-15 »
• There’s a feature article in CBA’s British Archaeology magazine no. 145 Nov-Dec 2015
• Academic article in Journal of Quaternary Science | open access PDF download Jun-2015 »
• More news about UK sites, finds and projects »

All praise to the JQS for being open-access too!

♦ Spence