Swine team roots out clues to Scots life

The earliest evidence of life in Scotland has been found — by a herd of pigs.

The discovery was made at Rubha Port an t-Seilich, on the island of Islay in the Inner Hebrides, in 2009 after the foraging pigs unearthed a set of 12,000-year-old Mesolithic Ice Age items.

Archaeologists from Reading University moved in and discovered a trove of artefacts, including tools such as scrapers which are believed to have been used for cleaning skins, and sharp points used for hunting big game.

However, the most exciting discovery came on the final day of the excavation in 2013, when the team uncovered tools dating back 15,000 years to the Palaeolithic era.

It is believed that the tools had been crafted by people of the Ahrensburgian culture, which flourished in mainland Europe towards the end of the last Ice Age.

Similar sites have recently been discovered in Denmark and Sweden, suggesting that the Ahrensburgian people may also have been coastal foragers who hunted sea mammals from boats made of skins.

Speaking to the BBC, Professor Steve Mithen, who led the excavation with Dr Karen Wicks, said: “The Mesolithic finds were a wonderful discovery — but what was underneath took our breath away.

“The Ice Age tools provide the first unequivocal presence of people in Scotland about 3,000 years earlier than previously indicated.

“This moves the story of Islay into a new historical era, from the Mesolithic into the Palaeolithic.”

Dr Wicks admitted that the initial discovery was “more swine team than Time Team”.

She added: “Archaeology relies on expert planning and careful analysis, but a bit of luck is also very welcome.”