PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge

Celebrating Palaeolithic and Mesolithic archaeology on the edge of North-West Europe, remembering CWJ. Home of the PALaEoScot project.

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

An AMAZING Discovery Day at Aberdeen as part of #explorathon #techfest and #archaeologymonth - we had more than 1000 visitors to our #PALaEoScot Stone Age camp and Arts+Animals space. Food, flint knapping, finger paints and fearsome beasts! Check out this 🧵 ⬇️

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

Kate has spent a week south of the border meeting hippos, hyenas and @HelsFewlass Fantastic to see the new excavations at Kents Cavern, to visit Joint Mitnor cave and to get some glimpses into animal life before the last glacial maximum and during the last interglacial

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

We don’t have cave bears in Late Pleistocene Scotland but we still think they are pretty cool!

[Archaeology at UoA @UoA_Archaeology]

Want to know about cave bear ecology?! So do we! PhD student Kiki Bordean is at Memorial University in St John’s CA (Dept of Archaeology, Dept of Earth Sciences, and CREAIT) undertaking strontium isotope analysis to reconstruct cave bear movements! @NERCscience @QUADRATdtp

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

@aliciasanzroyo Sadly our tests weren’t productive but I’ve certainly learned a lot about the geomorphology and sedimentology of the valley, which never hurts. And lovely to see the caves (despite some thoughtless visitors who have been clearly using the shaft as a toilet!!)

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

PALaEoScot is out on the road again, en route to the north-west and the bone caves, and a potential new site! Here’s hoping this weather lasts #scotland #fourseasonsinoneday #iceage

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

This week we had permission to investigate a new potential site in the Allt nam Uamh, away from the scheduled area. The site didn’t come to much, but wonderful to immerse in this ice age landscape (with some Pictish company!) and chat over the deep past in the caves too 🦌 🐻

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

@aliciasanzroyo

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

Last week Dr Ben Elliott @ArchSoundScapes visited our new @UKRI_News RICHeS funded labs to check out the amazing bone tech from Druimvargie. PhD student Tayla will be conducting RC and ZooMS at this site to better understand early Holocene animals and people! @NtlMuseumsScot

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

Excavated in the 1960s/70s, the Morton collections were divided between the @McManusDundee and @NtlMuseumsScot - the scientific study of these rare remains will help us better understand the chronology of this amazing site and the lives of people living in Mesolithic Scotland

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

Working with our taphonomy @aliciasanzroyo we are looking for anthropogenic modifications and evidence of tool use, and Tayla’s work will expand our knowledge of which animals could be found in Scotland before farming

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

Today PALaEoScot is going back to the future to Mesolithic Morton. A wonderful site with preserved but very fragmentary bones. PhD student Tayla is applying RC dating and ZooMS - a method of taxonomic identification based on peptide ‘fingerprinting’ @McManusDundee

[Archaeology at UoA @UoA_Archaeology]

Scanning, printing, cleaning, curing, and voila - bone clone! @UKRI_News @ahrcpress

[Archaeology at UoA @UoA_Archaeology]

Our first 3D print of a bone! This medieval cattle metacarpal might not look like much but it means we are in business in our RICHeS Ark of the North lab - next stop, scanning and printing A WHOLE BEAR SKELETON 🐻 🦴 @UKRI_News @ahrcpress

[Archaeology at UoA @UoA_Archaeology]

We’ve extended the deadline for our new zooarch technician post in light of confusion over the length of the role. It’s a grade 5 post with funding secure until at least March 2031 - new closing date June 1st! https://t.co/113HAATRx7

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

Come hop on board our Ark of the North and join the team here in Aberdeen! We are now seeking a full-time technical specialist in zooarchaeological analysis - apply now!

[Archaeology at UoA @UoA_Archaeology]

Come join our team as our new Zooarchaeology research technician! Closing date: 25/5/2026 https://t.co/7w84Vwq9bN

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

Huge thank you to Tullynessle Deer Farm for a wonderful and informative day out and for these lovely antlers too. We are looking forward to doing some experimental archaeology with these! @farm_deer57842 #iceage #palaeolithic #mesolithic #scotland 🦌

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

Some cracking little lithics today and plenty of shells as we opened up our first tests and cleaned down to the HUGE intact midden - what will tomorrow bring?!👀

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

@Stoviesplz @WhatKatieDigs @northernpicts A great place to set up camp!

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

Manny is ready to break ground! Team PALaEoScot are up in Moray for the next couple of weeks digging at Meft - an exciting new Mesolithic midden site!

[PALaEoScot - Prehistory on the Edge @PrehistoricEdge]

Looking forward to what we can learn about Mesolithic life in north-east Scotland from the new Meft site!

[Alicia Sanz Royo @aliciasanzroyo]

Good morning!
@PrehistoricEdge 🪏🪨🐚🦴

[Kate Britton @WhatKatieDigs]

Amazing to be a part of this! It’s rare to encounter an archaeological emergancy but this really was one - truly a once in a lifetime site! https://t.co/hkwfXj3UQZ