EHG114 - Excavation - Camas Daraich

Excavation work over six days in May 2000, and preliminary analysis on the site of a Mesolithic occupation site at Camas Daraich, Point of Sleat was carried out as a collaborative project between the Centre for Field Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, and Historic Scotland. The work followed the discovery of the site in late 1999 and finds collection into early 2000 (see EHG4711). The site was identified as potentially of great interest due to its location on the 20m raised beach which dates to the Late-glacial period, and to the presence of possibly early lithic types: tanged points. The excavation focused on the main site, and was carried out as a trial season to characterise the site. It was designed to assess its size, preservation levels and level of destruction caused by the bulldozed track, artefact types and date. Excavation work concentrated on one trench (Tr1) which measured 6m x 2m across the new track, together with four test pits, which measured 0.5m x 1m and three soil pits dug to characterise the nature of the local soils and underlying beach material. The preservation of a greasy black occupation layer in the vicinity of Tr1 was confirmed. This layer sits directly on the raised beach and it contained artificial features. An assemblage of 2013 pieces of flaked stone were recovered from the excavation, together with some coarse stone and pumice. The presence of charcoal and carbonised hazelnut shell was also confirmed. The site was extensively photographed and a video record taken of the work. Work on site was terminated prematurely because of a local problem. While this affected the amount of excavation undertaken, an adequate assessment of the remains was carried out. <1> The work was formally published in SAIR in 2004. <2>