The Campbeltown Raised Beach and its contained Stone Industry

Abstract

The relics are distributed throughout the upper part of the raised beach deposits, but locally they are concentrated. They originate from shore occupation-sites dating back to the period of rising sea-level, and they were incorporated into the beach\r\nformation during the emergence. The rolled and/or heavily patinated condition of some of the lithic products suggests they are older than their unscathed companions; yet no typological difference whatever can be detected between the altered and\r\nunchanged artefacts. Flint from Northern Ireland and local native rocks were employed including quartz and schistose grit. All the artifacts are of pre-Neolithic character. The Campbeltown industry may be grouped with the Mesolithic\r\nof Northern Ireland. The Argyll artefacts have their ancestry in the English Upper Palaeolithic (Creswellian), and consequently have their roots in the Aurignacian,\r\nindustrial vestiges of which are retained in the assemblage. Although no worked bone was obtained at Campbeltown, the infiltration of Baltic Forest Culture is suggested by a few objects, a small pick being particularly significant. The presence of these different forms also indicates that the Argyll stone industry is culturally more advanced and is possibly of lesser antiquity than the second stage of Movius's Early Larnian, which it otherwise so clearly resembles. Climatic conditions on the coasts of Northern Ireland and South Western Scotland in the Early Post-Glacial period being alike, and human needs being similar, these factors dictated the development of a local provincial culture. So far, only the more complex sections of the Antrim\r\nraised beach provide adequate proof of the evolution of this pre-Neolithic\r\nculture, but it is confidently expected that future researches in the Scottish\r\nlittoral deposits will afford equally conclusive evidence.