Wickham-Jones, C. R., Shepherd, A. N., Clarke, A., Finlayson, B., Hirons, K. R., Sutherland, D. and Zetterlund, P. (1990). Rhum. Mesolithic and later sites at Kinloch: excavations 1984-86. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000184.

The 7th millennium BC site is the earliest so far found in Scotland. Pits and hollows contained a range of lithic tools and materials derived from their use, and stakeholes and slots could have provided windbreaks or more substantial structures. The lithic materials were carefully selected from various local sources and worked using adaptive technology (such as bipolar reduction) to deal with intractable materials, often bloodstone. Spatial analysis suggested that separate areas of the site were differentiated in some way, but the pattern was confused by long occupation. Year-round rather than seasonal occupation may have occurred, but there was a wide network of contacts within the NW Scottish coast and islands. Full analysis of the lithic material is presented. The assemblage need not relate to Jacobi's scheme for England; Rhum may be just one facet of a heterogeneous Meso pattern. There were also scanty remains of Neo activity, late 2nd or early 3rd millennium BC.

This chapter presents information on the site location, topography and historical background along with the circumstances of the discovery and the site potential. Prior to the recent excavations there was no unequivocal evidence for occupation of Rhum before the 4th millennium BC.

The aim of the first season was to locate and assess the nature of the site. A clear concentration was identified in one area. Excavation revealed features whose location coincided exactly with the lithic scatter. These demonstrated a Mesolithic site with some continuity into the Neolithic although no definite features of the latter period were identified. Early Mesolithic radiocarbon dates were obtained. Truncation of the site and therefore preservation was variable.

The excavations yielded an assemblage of 138, 043 pieces of worked stone which represents only a fraction of the stone debris that littered the site as a result of the manufacture and use of stone tools throughout its prehistoric occupation. Items included pebbles, cores, blades, flakes, chunks, microliths, scrapers and arrowheads. The initial classification suggested that the site contained evidence for both the manufacture and the use of stone tools. The evidence for manufacture consisted of the quantities of knapping debris, cores, core trimming and rejuvenation flakes, irregular flakes and chinks. Evidence for use lay in the modified artefacts and in the blades and regular flakes many of which were doubtless used without modification. The modified artefacts included scrapers, borers, bifacial points, and a variety of microliths. A number of factors suggested that some of these, at least, had been used.

A total of 1608 pieces were modified after primary flaking. The strategy for modification was always retouching (ie the removal of small flakes from the original blank), probably through an antler tine. In addition, some light percussion was used to modify flakes, particular when a steeper edge angle was required as on many of the scrapers. Each of the types is discussed though it is stressed that the identification of types is based solely on technological and morphological information only. Only a small proportion of the blades and flakes that were manufactured were modified.

An assemblage of 61 water worn pebbles or cobbles were classified according to type and location of wear and modification present. The tools included hammerstones, bevelled pebbles, anvils, manuports and a possible polisher. The Neolithic pottery comprised 299, probably redeposited, sherds. Eleven pieces of pumice, a very small quantity of calcined bone and two shell fragments were also found.

In the early postglacial period a highly dynamic environment was produced in the Hebrides by a combination of exposure, climatic change, fluctuations in sea level, and rapidly changing vegetation. This changing environment must have imposed various stresses on the resource base of the early inhabitants of Kinloch and thus on their survival strategies. To examine it an integrated series of palaeoecological and palaeoenvironmental studies were carried out in conjunction with the archaeological investigations.

Although not fully confirmed by geological provenancing, the available evidence does suggest that Bloodstone Hill, Rhum was the only prehistoric source of bloodstone. Given this assumption, and though the archaeological evidence is not abundant, certain patterns are discernible. The use of bloodstone extended over a long period of time (from the Mesolithic into the Bronze Age). Bloodstone was the only one of a number of lithic resources available throughout the area, but it was the only raw material likely to have been collected from any distance. Throughout the period of its use, some slight changes are visible. In the Mesolithic there is more evidence for the on-site manufacture of bloodstone artefacts reflected in the quantities of knapping debris recovered), and as the Mesolithic sites are all (so far) on the Ardnamurchan or Morvern peninsulas there is the possibility that their inhabitants maintained direct access to Rhum and removed raw materials in the form of cores. In this period the exploitation of bloodstone may have been subsidiary to other subsistence activities. In the later periods it seems that bloodstone may have been used more specifically, particularly for retouched artefacts, and it may have been transported as prepared flakes.