ARCHAEOLOGISTS have discovered the shattered remains of a 6000-year-old human that could be the oldest person from Stirling - with experts believing they could belong to one of Scotland’s first-ever farmers.
Dr Murray Cook made the discovery as part of his annual work at an ancient burial cairn at Gallow Hill, on the eastern edge of the Argaty estate, that was first discovered in 1990.
The circular structure, which has an internal diameter 11.3 meters and an external diameter 17.4 meters with an overgrown stoney wall, overlooks the valley and has been the source of some recent Neolithic discoveries by volunteers.
The site has been “highly disturbed” by both medieval ploughing and later quarrying, but archaeologists say the entire site is “covered” with struck quartz, dating around 1500-700 BC, along with flint and chert, a hard, dense sedimentary rock made of tiny quartz crystals.
READ MORE: Level of abuse SNP’s newest MP receives 'outrageous', her predecessor says
This summer, Dr Cook and his team have made two significant discoveries at the site, including a funerary gift in the cairn and what could be the oldest human remains found in Stirling.
“The interior was all heavily disturbed, but astonishingly we seem to have recovered the cremated remains of a person, all highly disturbed by later activity, perhaps quarrying for the local road in the 18th or 19th century,” Dr Cook said.
“Now this of course raises the possibility of a yet undiscovered burial chamber and certainly the struck quartz is all in the upper layers, suggesting the site was reused.”
Dr Cook has launched a fundraiser to help cover the costs of the analysis of the lithics and the cremated human skull, as he said it will cost around £2300 to have the work carried out by experts.
He said the analysis of the bone will determine the age, sex and number of individuals represented by the remains, along with the cremation process that warps the bones and fragments them, which explains why the analysis is “so expensive”.
“Our project will be the first time anyone has dug a Neolithic Cairn round Stirling in the modern period, so the results will be very important,” Dr Cook explained.
“Remember these are Scotland’s first farmers, and we are increasingly thinking that they may come from the continent.
“Therefore the human remains we recovered are the oldest person from Stirling and may even be from a migrant.”
READ MORE: Guarantee free childcare from third birthday, Greens tell Scottish Government
Dr Cook told The National that he believes the remains could come from a migrant because farming technologies were brought to the continent and that archaeologists are finding that older human remains are from overseas due to DNA analysis.
He added: "Basically because Scotland was covered in ice, everyone had to come here.
“Ultimately we’ll test the DNA if we can, but that’s phase two.”
Along with the human remains, Dr Cook’s team found a Mesolithic core which he initially believed was roughly 8000 years old and would date back to a time when bears and lynxes were still being hunted in the Kings Park area of the city.
However, analysis has uncovered that although the object is still a core, it is in fact newer but much rarer.
Dr Torben Ballin said after his initial inspection that it is the “most beautiful well-shaped tortoise core rough-out for a Levallois-like core, and as such diagnostic of the Middle/Late Neolithic period”.
He added: “Apparently, no flakes have been removed from it.
“I don't understand what their intentions were, as the general thought is that these cores were meant for the production of relatively large flakes for either chisel-shaped or oblique arrowheads.”
READ MORE: Scottish minister issues UK Government 'wake-up call' over soaring energy bills
Archaeologists at the Gallow Hill site said they found an area of rough cobbling outside the burial cairn which had a “significant concentration” of quartz in it, which they believe is where tools were made from the stone.
Dr Cook explained that his initial thoughts are that the site is probably a Neolithic, 6000 years old, burial monument with an entrance and even a chambered cairn, that had been built on an ancient Mesolithic camp.
He said: “The cairn was surrounded by a fence line, perhaps to define a ritual area and then later used for settlement around 1000 BC, the date of the struck quartz.
“Then ploughed in the medieval period, then surrounded by beech trees and then quarried and then surrounded by conifers. We will return next year but wow, what a story.”
Dr Cook has already raised £600 towards the goal of having the remains and the core analysed. You can find the fundraiser here alongside the original post by Dr Cook.
Share