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Excavation of a Neolithic Wooden Platform, Stirlingshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

Clare Ellis ,
Anne Crone ,
Eileen Reilly  and
Paul Hughes
Clare Ellis
Affiliation:
AOC Archaeology Group, Edgefield Road Industrial Estate, Edgefield Road, Loanhead, Midlothian, Scotland EH20 9SY
Anne Crone
Affiliation:
AOC Archaeology Group, Edgefield Road Industrial Estate, Edgefield Road, Loanhead, Midlothian, Scotland EH20 9SY
Eileen Reilly
Affiliation:
Margaret Gower & Co. Ltd., 2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenagcary, Co. Dublin, Ireland
Paul Hughes
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ
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Abstract

Parks of Garden, a Neolithic site in southern Scotland, is located within a thin wedge of peat which abuts a ridge of glacial moraine that stretches across the Upper Forth river valley. The site comprises a rapidly constructed small wooden platform dating to 3340–2920 cal BC, within the Early Neolithic period of Scotland. The platform may have functioned as a transitory hunting hide and as a preparation area for hunting and gathering expeditions across the fen and into the salt-marshes of the local environment.

Résumé

‘Parks of Garden’, site néolithique du sud de l'Ecosse, se trouve dans un mince angle de tourbe qui vient buter contre le flanc d'une moraine glaciaire qui traverse la vallée de la rivière Upper Forth. Le site comprend une petite plateforme en bois de construction rapide datant d'entre 3340 et 2920 av. J.-C.en années calibrées, c'est à dire de la période du néolithique inférieur en Ecosse. Il se peut que la plateforme ait servi d'affût de chasse temporaire et de lieu pour les préparatifs d'expéditions de chasse et de cueillette dans les marécages et les marais salants environnants.

Resúmen

Parks of Garden es un yacimiento neolítico en el sur de Escocia, situado en una estrecha banda de turba que linda con una cadena de depósitos glaciales de morena que se extiende a lo largo del valle del rio Upper Forth. El yacimiento comprende una pequeña plataforma de madera construida rapidamente y que data al 3340–2920 cal aC, en el periodo del neolítico inicial en Escocia. La plataforma podría haber servido como un escondite para cazadores y como una zona de preparación para las expediciones de caza y recolección a través del fen y hasta las marismas del entorno local.

Zusammenfassung

Der neolithische Fundplatz Parks of Garden in Südschottland liegt auf einem schmalen keilförmigen Stück Torfland, das an einen eiszeitlichen Moränenkamm grenzt, der sich über das Tal des Upper Förth Rivers erstreckt. Der Fundplatz umfasst eine schnell erbaute kleine Holzplattform, die nach 3340–2920 cal BC datiert wird, also ins schottische Frühneolithikum. Die Plattform könnte als kurzfristiges Jagdversteck und als Platz zur Vorbereitung auf Jagd- und Sammelexpeditonen ins Moor und in die Salzmarschen der Umgebung gedient haben.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 68 , 2002 , pp. 247 - 256
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 2002

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