British Archaeology, no 28, October 1997: News

The remains of some of the oldest buildings in Britain have been found on top of a hill near Avebury in Wiltshire. Three flint floors with associated post-holes and a hearth appear to represent the remains of a group of dwellings dating from the last phase of hunting and gathering in Britain, at about 4,500BC in the Late Mesolithic.

The dwellings, on Golden Ball Hill in the Marlborough Downs, are thought to have been occupied over a number of years. They mark the first phase of persistent settlement in an area that was to become a major focus for human ceremonial activity in the centuries to come. An Early Neolithic causewayed enclosure lies on the adjacent Knap Hill, while the Neolithic sites of West Kennet long barrow, Silbury Hill and Avebury lie some four miles to the north.

Mesolithic buildings of substance are exceptionally rare in Britain. More common on Mesolithic sites - even on sites used repeatedly - are the narrow stakeholes of wind- breaks or tents. The few other examples of substantial Mesolithic buildings include traces of three structures, consisting of deep foundation trenches for timber-plank walls, found a few years ago at Kirkhill near Lockerbie (see BAN, February 1994), four large Late Mesolithic roundhouses at Bowman's Farm in Hampshire, and another roundhouse at Mount Sandel in Northern Ireland.

The flint floors on Golden Ball Hill, found by a team of post-graduate students from Cardiff University, consist of carefully selected smooth flint pebbles. The largest floor measures some 15m by 10m, suggesting it formed the base of an imposing structure. The floors have been provisionally dated by the presence of numerous tiny flint points and bladelets of Late Mesolithic type lying undisturbed on the floors, together with flint-knapping waste. A complete absence of pottery strongly suggests the site pre- dates the Neolithic. Charcoal from the hearth will eventually produce a radiocarbon date for the site.

Two middens of Late Mesolithic flintknapping waste have long been known on Golden Ball Hill, lying at some distance from the dwellings. According to Ian Dennis, one of the excavators, the occupants would have prepared their tools inside, cleared up the debris, and taken it outside to the tip. 'The tiny flints found on site were simply what was left behind - tiny pieces that perhaps slipped unseen through a matted rush floor,' he said.

The site was an 'ideal' place for a settlement, Mr Dennis explained. It had a commanding view across the Vale of Pewsey, which would have been wooded in the Mesolithic and stocked full of game and other foods. The hilltop also has plentiful supplies of flint and good natural drainage.

A remarkable feature of the site - only recognised after the excavation began - is that the buildings are still faintly visible from the surface, despite their great antiquity, as slight indentations in the hilltop turf.

Excavations on a golf-course at Crail, on the Fife coastline, have produced evidence of the equal-oldest human occupation site in Scotland, and the oldest by far yet found on the east coast.

A number of pits have been found containing tiny flint tools and knapping waste, charcoal, and burned hazelnut shells, producing radiocarbon dates that centre on about 9,500 years ago. This Early Mesolithic site is thought to have been a temporary encampment used once only for a couple of days by a small band of huntergatherers on the move.

A Mesolithic site of this date is known from Kinloch on Rhum, while sites a few hundred years younger have been found near Oban and at Lussa Wood on Jura. On the east coast, by contrast, the earliest site with a secure date previously known was at Morton in Fife, dating from about 8,000 years ago. (A radiocarbon date of around 9,000BP is also known from Morton, but this date is contested and insecure.)

All the evidence at Crail points to an ephemeral, short-term occupation, according to Dr Stephen Carter of Headland Archaeology, whose colleague Magnar Dalland excavated the site. There are no certain traces of tents or shelters of any kind; and all but one of the pits are concentrated in a tiny area of about two square metres. Virtually all the flints belong to a single type - 'crescent'-type microliths, shaped like a half-moon - whereas on repeated-occupation sites a collection of different types is generally found. 'This type of temporary encampment, although presumably extremely common at the time, is only rarely found today, ' Dr Carter said.

According to Mesolithic specialist Caroline Wickham-Jones, who has studied the finds, the low density of flints suggests a group of just two or three people used this site. The presence of hazelnuts and the apparent absence of shelter possibly indicates the camp was used in mild weather in autumn.

Very few flint cores were found, implying that fresh tools were not made on site. The flint-working that took place consisted rather of repairs and modifications to existing tools brought from a base camp. The single type of tool found suggests the group came here for a particular purpose, possibly to catch and prepare fish, or seabirds and sea-mammals, to lay down a supply of oily meats for the winter. 'One problem with Mesolithic diet was how to get enough fat into it, unlike today,' Dr Wickham-Jones said.

The function of the pits, however, and exactly what happened at this site, remain obscure. Fires were not lit in the pits themselves, but the flints and shells inside had been thoroughly burned in intense heat - possibly suggesting the group had smoked meat here or nearby, Dr Wickham-Jones said. The nut-shells may have been used as tinder once the nuts had been eaten. No animal or fish bones have survived in the site's acidic soil.

An impression of the chaotic savagery of medieval warfare has emerged from a study of 43 skeletons discovered last year heaped together in a mass grave near the site of the Battle of Towton in North Yorkshire.

Iron Age house