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MHG63061 - Mesolithic midden - Tarradale (2D)

Summary

Test pits were excavated through the plough soil to try to identify the depth and extent of a presumed shell midden at Tarradale.

Type and Period (1)

Protected Status

Full Description

The Tarradale Archaeological Project started as a private initiative around 2008 and was incorporated as an approved NOSAS research project in 2011. The Tarradale archaeological project aims to investigate and record the surviving archaeological evidence of the multi-period archaeological landscape of the Tarradale area and to interpret the chronological development of settlement and resource utilisation in the study area.

Field walking in 2011 discovered, about 500 m west of Tarradale House, a much denser than usual spread of shells which was found to have occurred because the farmer was using a deeper than normal plough. A number of 1 m² test pits were excavated through the plough soil to try to identify the depth and extent of a presumed shell midden. These test pits showed that the plough had just caught the shallow northern edge of a surviving shell midden but a few metres further south the test pits showed relatively deep layers of midden that had been preserved by being buried underneath an increasing depth of soil that had moved downhill because of soil wash and ploughing action as far as a post mediaeval field boundary but the midden was then truncated due to ploughing in the field below causing the formation of a negative lynchet.

The test pits revealed that in addition to the presence of very large numbers of mollusc shells (estimated to be in excess of 1 million if not several million), there was good survival of organic remains and samples of charcoal and antler gave dates of approximately 6500 BCE and 6100 BCE respectively. Analysis of the shells from one of the test pits showed that the most frequently surviving were mussels closely followed by periwinkles. They greatly outnumbered oysters but because oysters are so large they dominate the volume and weight of shells recovered. It is not known if there were any nearby Mesolithic structures but the chance of their surviving on the uphill side of the midden is likely to be poor due to plough action and soil movement downhill to the south. Any features including potential hearths are most likely to have survived in the southern part of the midden where the topsoil is deeper than the current plough zone. <1>

Potential Mesolithic evidence has been found at Tarradale. Eight shell midden sites, comprising spreads of marine shells, were recorded by NOSAS at locations found along the top and base of the raised beach shoreline to the east and west of Tarradale House (Figure 1). The raised beach represents a former shoreline that now appears further inland due to sea level changes associated with isostatic rebound after the last ice age and the reclamation of land for farming practices. Project volunteers undertook auguring at the sites to reveal that the shell midden layers survived below the plough soil (Grant 2016).

One shell midden site located 500m to the west of Tarradale House (marked as ‘C’ in Figure 1) was previously excavated by NOSAS in 2015 by test pit excavation. The test pits revealed that a 0.25m-0.3m deep shell midden layer survived in this area, deepening towards the downslope (SW) side. Analysis of the shell layer showed that mussels and periwinkles predominated the assemblage. At least two dark organic lenses are visible in photographs of the test pit sequence, layers that are interspersed between what appears to be an upper shell midden and a lower shell midden layer, and probably representing occupation horizons. <2>

One surface spread of shells was so dense, that several test pits revealed an exptensive midden below the topsoil (site 2D), just above the degraded old shoreline. One sample of charcoal from shell midden 2D was dated to 6632 - 6480 BC and a cut-off antler tine to 6204 - 6005 BC. We cannot say if the shell midden was continually occupied or was a favoured seasonal camping ground, but it does appear as if it was occupied and reoccupied many times over several hundred years. It is likely that these fisrt settlers became more settled through time, building small timber-framed structures and stayin in their camps for longer periods. <3>

In April 2023, Professor Astrid Nyland from the University of Stavanger and Drs Jen Harland, Ingrid Mainland and Ben Elliott from UHI Orkney examined Mesolithic sites at Tarradale to see if they would be suitable to include in their overall project looking into the effects of the Storegga tsunami on the east coast of Scotland. This team returned in Autumn 2023 to undertake scientific analysis of the “2D” shell midden site in the barrow cemetery field. Test pits on this site in 2011 yielded radiocarbon dates from the seventh millennium BC. <4>

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Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NH 5491 4873 (44m by 44m)
Map sheet	NH54NW

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Related Investigations/Events (1)

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