EHG6083 - Excavation - Mesolithic site, Risga

A excavation was undertaken in 1997 by T Pollard, J Atkinson and I Banks of Glasgow University at the shell midden on the island of Risga in Loch Sunart, Ardnamurchan. The site had previously been subject to test-pitting (see EHG6081) and trial trenching (see EHG6082). The 1994 trench was re-opened and extended in order to take in the northern edge of the midden mound. A high priority was the establishment of the stratigraphical relationship between the external features and the mound itself. A major question was whether features existed beneath the mound? Cleaning down of the features first identified in 1994 continued and several new features, including two hearths, were identified. Lithics continued to be recovered in large numbers, and, as their locations were 3-dimensionally recorded, this slowed the pace of the excavation. In all, around 3000 pieces of struck stone were recorded in-situ and a further 2500 recovered during the course of sieving the excavated material. It became obvious during this work that the structural elements found in 1994 were a lot more complex than had first been thought. It had been hoped that undisturbed horizons might have been located beneath the edge of the mound, however, a slot cut through the western part of the trench revealed that here, as elsewhere, nothing survived undisturbed. In fact, the marks left by the investigations in the early 1920s could still be seen in the soft sandstone bedrock which underlay the mound. Work on the lithic assemblage was on-going. Around 9000 pieces had been recovered so far, and this was a large number when one considered the small area of the site from which it was recorded. Further work on the island was postponed until detailed analysis of the assemblage had taken place. <1>