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The Caves of Mid Argyll: an archaeology of human use

Christopher Tolan-Smith

Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph Series no.20, 2001pp.184, 87 b/w photos and line drawings, 31 tables Paperback, 25

It is always exciting when a project of relevance to ones own research is published. In this case the volume is a thorough and painstaking piece of work which offers several different discourses for our money: the results of a four-year survey of caves and rock shelters in mid Argyll; the results of selected excavations using both data collected by the author and his team and data collected by earlier teams, notably in the case of St Columbas cave which had been excavated on and off between 1959 and 1976; and discussion of the human use of caves in south-west Scotland in both early and more recent times. Finally, thrown in for good measure, there is a brief consideration of the early Stone Age settlement of south-west Scotland.

To go through the contents in order, the volume starts with a consideration of cave archaeology in mid Argyll. There is a brief consideration of previous work together with a detailed summary of known information on recorded caves and rockshelters. This is followed by a description of the background to and methods of the mid-Argyll cave and rockshelter survey together with a gazetteer of results. For one now embarked on a similar study further north, this provided a mine of useful information: from the four categories of cave and rockshelter, to the criteria for human use. The gazetteer itself is detailed and informative, the information easy to assimilate. It is particularly gratifying to see that this survey includes a listing of caves and rockshelters with no obvious evidence of human use. Caves are a good example of the archaeological truth that absence of evidence does not provide evidence of absence and this had to be faced by Tolan-Smith and his colleagues in the 80s just as by more recent survey teams. Having said that, has the author then perhaps placed undue weight on visible evidence in his subsequent discussions of cave use?

Section two deals with the publication of excavation data relating to St Columbas Cave. What follows is a masterful summary and interpretation of a complex history of the formation and clearance of deposits in and around the cave, including at least three unpublished periods of twentieth century excavation. St Columbas Cave is an important site with a recurrent pattern of sporadic use that encompassed domestic, religious and industrial work from the Mesolithic to the present day. The stratigraphy is reconstructed in its complexities and the finds (both ecofacts and artefacts) are presented in considerable detail. This detail is such that it enabled this author to query whether more of the bone tools might not be Mesolithicand far from being negative this is indeed a positive feature as paper publications today rarely offer the opportunity for that sort of detailed consideration of artefacts.

This is followed by a section dealing with the excavation of Ellary boulder cave and rockshelter. Once again there is unpublished excavation work to be taken into account and once again everything is set out in considerable detail. This time there is also excavation undertaken by Tolan-Smith himself, though here the detail does perhaps hinder a clear understanding of the stratigraphy by the uninitiated, but there is a good summary at the end of the section. Finds, once more, are presented in exemplary fashion: it is nice to see the problems and rewards of dealing with worked quartz assemblages being given consideration (though there is perhaps a little more to be gleaned from recent work elsewhere, especially in Scandinavia), and the information on the exploitation of shell fish will provide an interesting lead and comparison for shell fish studies elsewhere. The main quibble of this reviewer would be the apparent equation of microliths with hunting (p.102) which has for some time been considered over simple in Mesolithic studies. As at St Columbas Cave evidence was found for a long sequence of use running back from the present day, to early prehistory. This encompassed both domestic and industrial use. It is interesting that having warned us early on in the volume against the dangers of the effects of the multiple occupancy of caves on earlier deposits, the author spends time considering the apparent survival of Mesolithic technology among those who used the cave in the Neolithic. Precise dating of all the significant contexts by radiocarbon determinations was not possible and tools of Mesolithic aspect are either lost or doubtful. If you do believe in the Mesolithic at Ellary you do not need to construct a complex mechanism by which it was visited by a group of farmers, out on a hunting trip with out-of-date tools.

The final excavation deals with work at the Tinklers Cave. The submission of this site to both nineteenth-century dynamite and twentieth-century bulldozers can only serve to emphasise the particular fragility of cave and rockshelter sites and the urgency of projects like this. Excavation in what was left of Tinklers Cave was undertaken in 1985, and the volume contains a detailed description of both stratigraphic and artefactual findings. Sadly, the exigencies of its earlier treatment meant that the results can only comprise a simplified version of what must have been an interesting site. Evidence starts with occupation in the second millennium BC by people using Beaker pottery who were apparently harvesting the rich resources of the sea and coastal waters, and continues with some hints of activity in later prehistory and the post-medieval period.

The fifth section provides some discussion and drawing together of the information provided by the previous excavation and survey reports, and takes up where the introduction left off. It is a sad reflection of the time taken for texts to make it to publication that several of the issues raised are already out of date. The focus of early dates relating to the stone age settlement of Scotland has shifted somewhat in the last two years. It is no longer true to say that the earliest dates come from the west coast islands, and, though this writer sees no reason why we might expect the spread of humans to proceed from the south and east, she has to admit that at the present the earliest dates do point in that direction. Nevertheless, the quest for the earliest date must be intellectually flawed as individual research has always a reasonable chance of finding radiocarbon trophies: surely we should be looking for trends rather than flag-wavers. At the same time, we can no longer say that cave use is not early in Scotland with mid eighth millennium BC dates for the rockshelter at Sand, Applecross and rumours of a reinterpretation of the finds from Kilmelfort Cave to the late glacial.

Despite the apparent hiatus between information and publication, it is perhaps a reflection of the state of Mesolithic studies and archaeology in general that many of the research questions posed in this volume still hold good. The lack of early sites in the south-west mainland is still interesting, and yes, Scottish archaeology does seem to have underplayed the role of caves and rockshelters at any time in the past. Can it really be likely, however, that this part of the south-west was by-passed by the Mesolithic Scots when we know they lived as close as Jura, Islay and Arran? Only test pitting can determine whether the cave and rockshelter sites without obvious evidence really are blank, and it is important to remember that these are not the only type of Mesolithic site. Open-air sites also provide important evidence for Mesolithic activity, but were not, apparently, included in the present study.

In this respect it is disappointing that results of the project are presented as quite so negative. Surely they provide stimulation for further work rather than an answer to a problem. The volume is also important in other ways: it is a reminder of the fragility and rewards of a, perhaps undervalued, part of the archaeological record; it is also a reminder that, whatever the primary interests of any one research team, caves and rockshelters have acted as a focus for human attention throughout history. It is to Tolan-Smiths credit that he did not dismiss the material with which he did not initially have a specialist interest (how much Mesolithic material gets similarly good treatment at the hands of later research one is tempted to ask?). This volume provides a valuable synthesis of data and herein lies my final quibble: is this type of work really suited to paper publication?

We have, in the early twenty-first century, an alternative means of publication: electronic publication, which is to my mind much better suited to the dissemination of basic archaeological data. Not only does it spread the word further afield, it also provides the means for the easy listing of all relevant information, whether of finds, stratigraphical data, or environmental information. It is frustrating for the lithic specialist to be told that there were seventeen pieces of struck flint but find no table of basic typology, it must be equally frustrating for other specialists to see their data summarised. Summaries are no longer needed. We can only hope that with the advent of the Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports (www.sair.org.uk/) the compression of interesting data into paper reports will finish: thus opening up the way for more paper publication of synthesis, controversy and discussion.

To summarise, it is all too easy for individual reviewers to nit pick according to personal whim. The fact that I have been able to find no detailed criticism of this volume should act as a demonstration of its high quality. The Caves of Mid Argyll will become well thumbed as it contains a mine of information for those interested in the early settlement of south-west Scotland. It is a good buy and generally an easy read. It is a good example of how to publish an excavation, especially for those who may find themselves incorporating earlier, unpublished, work. It should make its way on to most archaeological bookshelves and will no doubt stimulate both further fieldwork in the area, and considerable discussion on the many themes on which it touches.

C.R. Wickham-Jones
University of Edinburgh