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Posts by: Ann

  1. Excavation and Fieldwalking

    By Ann – January 18, 2010

  2. Tool Storage

    Careful recording of the finds from excavations at  Mound 1, Bornais, S Uist has given some indication of how the stone tools were used and stored during the occupation of this Iron Age roundhouse.  Many of the stone tools were clearly deposited in groups;  three discrete groups formed tight concentrations of 50cm to 60cm in diameter [...]

    By Ann – January 14, 2010

  3. Rotary Querns and Stone Weights

    Rotary querns and stone weights were the most common finds at the excavation of an Iron Age homestead at Black Spout, Perth and Kinross. They were all made from the locally available garnetiferous schist. For more information go to www.pkht.org.uk/Projects/Black-Spout-Homestead-Pitlochry/  

    By Ann – January 13, 2010

  4. Stone tools from Orkney and Shetland

    Coarse stone tools are frequent finds at prehistoric sites in Orkney and Shetland. A whole range of tools was made and used for diverse jobs such as butchering, flint knapping, craft work, agriculture, storage and food processing. These stone assemblages are often large, dominated by particular tool types and are found at many different types of site [...]

    By Ann – November 2, 2009

  5. Stone tools and butchering

      Skaill knives are simple flake tools made from sandstone cobbles. They are commonly found in middens associated with settlements of the Late Neolithic  in Orkney. Wear traces are often visible on these tools indicating that they had been used prior to deposition.  Given the perceived ‘softness’ or fragility of the sandstone the question arose as to what exactly these stone flakes had been [...]

    By Ann – November 2, 2009

  6. Craft specialisation in the Mesolithic

    Recent excavations at  sites in Northern Britain have added to the repertoire of coarse stone tools known to have been in use during the Mesolithic. By analysing the distinctive wear traces on all the coarse stone tools from a site and by examining their context of deposition it has been possible to identify areas on site where [...]

    By Ann – November 2, 2009

  7. Stone axes from Orkney

        Recent excavations in Orkney have almost doubled the number of recorded stone axes. Consequently, a large proportion of these tools, some 64%, come from excavated contexts at settlement or funerary sites dating from the Early to Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. Many different types of stone were chosen for the axes and [...]

    By Ann – November 2, 2009

  8. Experimental Archaeology

     A project in experimental archaeology, Avasjo, Sweden This involved a week in Lapland partaking of activities appropriate to a hunter/ gatherer lifestyle: setting camp, making and using stone and bone tools, skinning and butchering a reindeer, cooking and preserving meat, preparing hides, making cooking pits, walking in the wildwood. For a fuller account read: Wickham-Jones, CR; [...]

    By Ann – October 28, 2009

  9. Odds and sods

    By Ann – October 28, 2009

  10. Ann Clarke MA, MA, MLitt, MIFA, FSA Scot

    With over 25 years of experience in lithic research I offer confident assessment of your stone artefact assemblages. I have an extensive knowledge of flaked lithic, worked pumice and coarse stone tool assemblages from the Mesolithic through to the Early Historic period. All catalogues and reports are prepared to publication level. Along with freelance work I have [...]

    By Ann – October 28, 2009

  11. Making stone tools

     

    By Ann – October 12, 2009