AN UPPER PALAEOLITHIC FLINT AND CHERT ASSEMBLAGE FROM HOWBURN FARM, SOUTH LANARKSHIRE, SCOTLAND: FIRST RESULTS

Abstract

This paper describes the discovery of the first open-air Upper Palaeolithic site to be found in Scotland, at Howburn, near Biggar in South Lanarkshire. An account is given of the composition and distribution of the lithic assemblage, which is discussed in terms of its British and north-west European context. Provisional parallels drawn are with the Late Hamburgian (Havelte) sites and assemblages of southern Scandinavia, northern Germany and the Netherlands. There is no absolute dating evidence for the site, but an age in the region of 12,000 14C yr BP, towards the end of the earlier (Bølling) Lateglacial Interstadial stage, is proposed on the basis of the lithic artefacts.