Sites of this date are rare in the lowlands of Perth and Kinross, Freeland Farm in Lower Strathearn being the notable exception (Nicol and Ballin 2019). Recent work at Tarradale on the Black Isle located in an estuarine/coastal environment on the Beauly Firth similar to that of the Tay Estuary has shown that animal bones from the Late Mesolithic/Neolithic period can survive well, given the right waterlogged conditions (Smith 2019b). Large cattle, thought to be close to the true wild aurochs in ancestry, wild boar, pine marten and red deer, all typical of this early period (Yalden 1999, 72–8), were identified at Tarradale. At Howburn, South Lanarkshire, survey has recovered Late Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic stone tools from an area once known to have been a small loch. While animal bones did not survive, the tools were evidence of hunting, presumed to have been of reindeer (Ballin et al 2018).
These sites have shown that evidence of early prehistoric activity can be found along river valleys and former, now drained low-lying lake environments and targeting these areas in future may prove fruitful. Estuarine environments were also clearly important. At Morton in Fife, near the mouth of the Tay, an important assemblage of the late 7th millennium BP was recovered including red deer, roe deer, wild boar, aurochs, hedgehog and possible bank vole, as well as sea birds such as gannet and guillemot and fish, principally cod (McCormick and Buckland 1991, 90). Whale strandings along the Firth of Forth (McCormick and Buckland 1991, 90) were probably an important resource for Mesolithic people during periods of marine transgression. It is not impossible similar evidence may be found in future for the Tay.
Animal bones, probably of deer species and beaver, recovered from marl extraction at Marlee Loch in the late 18th century are likely to represent a Mesolithic/Neolithic fauna (Canmore site NO14SW3). Local museums contain bones supposedly recovered from marl pitting but as Culture Perth and Kinross states in the accession data for the beaver skull reportedly found in 1788, the attribution of the ‘current specimen may be in doubt’ (Object no 1881.925).
Research Priorities
- Find sites with right conditions for preservation of faunal evidence are rare, so require special consideration when encountered in situ.
- Importance of waterlogged sites (eg Edramucky; upland).