Internet Archaeol 5. Wickham-Jones & Dalland 8

8.0 The Final Picture

Figure 11: Reconstruction by Mary Kemp-Clarke - meat smoking in early autumn?

It only remains to suggest what might have been going on at the site (Figures 11 and 12). This is clearly the hardest task of all, and it is impossible to be certain. Nevertheless, given the location of the site, activities involving the exploitation of marine resources would seem the most likely.

Today, Fife Ness is a well known spot for migratory birds, and birds are generally held to have been an important resource in the mesolithic. It has been noted that the shelter appears to have been erected against winds from the NE, but these occur mainly in the autumn, just when conditions are right for a massive fall of migrants such as Scandinavian thrushes, pipits, and larks (Smout pers com). On the other hand, crescentic microliths might well have been a feature of specialised fishing equipment in mesolithic Fife. Whatever the resource, the smoking of meat such as birds, fish, or shellfish would be well in line with current theories on mesolithic activities as well as those that involve the use of heat and thus, possibly, the accidental burning of lithic waste. Smoking could also have required the use of a small windbreak or shelter such as that indicated by a putative arc of post-holes, or it might have involved the use of a variety of pits, perhaps over a series of days. Given the exposed location of the site and ephemeral nature of the structural evidence (if any), it seems likely that this occupation must have taken place during a more clement time of year, such as the early autumn.

Was Fife Ness a mesolithic fishers' camp, or a bird hunters' butt, in use for a short while to provide a supply of food for the winter ? This is the neat answer. The truth remains elusive, and probably involves something quite different: an explanation so completely wild, or so banal, that we would never imagine it could have taken place. Only with the discovery and excavation of other, similar sites can we really begin to shed light on this aspect of the early settlement of Scotland. Fife Ness has at least opened up a new window onto this, most interesting, period of Scotland's ancient past.

As a final aside, the discovery of the site highlights the value of the watching brief system in use at Craighead Golf Course. The lack of sites like this in the Scottish mesolithic has been mentioned above: they are hard to find. Watching briefs like this may be one of the few ways in which such sites can be found. Fife Ness therefore offers an important lesson to us all, not only those involved in research on the mesolithic, but also those involved in drawing up policy and caring for the remains of our forbears.

Figure 12: Reconstruction by Mary Kemp-Clarke - a mesolithic fishers' camp, or a bird hunters' butt?