Focus on finds: Arran pitchstone

Friday, September 13, 2024

“Like the axeheads and maceheads made on rocks from similar source areas, the pitchstone tells us that Neolithic Orcadians were moving in the broader currents of the Irish sea zone.”

Card, Edmonds and Mitchell. The Ness of Brodgar: As it Stands (2020)

Pitchstone artefacts from the Ness of Brodgar site. (📷 Hugo Anderson-Whymark)

The location of Arran in relation to the Orkney Mainland.

Arran pitchstone has only been found at two Neolithic sites in Orkney – the Ness of Brodgar complex and the Barnhouse settlement, some 460 metres to the south-east.

Pitchstone is a volcanic glass, like obsidian, and its nearest source is, unsurprisingly, Arran – the largest island in the Firth of Clyde, off the south-western coast of Scotland.

Over 50 fragments were recovered at the Ness – most from Structure Eight – making it the largest Orcadian pitchstone assemblage to date. Excavation at the Barnhouse settlement yielded 26 pieces.

Only available in Orkney through exchange and travel, the pitchstone at these two sites adds to the evidence that Orcadians were part of an extensive network in the Neolithic, with long-distance journeys to and from Scotland’s west coast of Scotland and beyond.

How the raw material arrived in Orkney is not clear – was it brought north by visitors or taken home as a “trophy” by far-faring islanders? What we can say is that pitchstone was being worked at both the Ness and Barnhouse.

In Structure Eight at the Ness, debitage confirmed that pitchstone was knapped in the building.

A study by lithics specialist Dr Hugo Anderson Whymark, of the National Museums Scotland, suggested the pitchstone had been worked by someone familiar with the material. [1]

Within Structure Eight’s 2018 assemblage were seven pieces from a single occupation layer. Among these were three blades. This was a significant discovery because the production of blades was not a feature of the late Orcadian Neolithic. It was, however, characteristic of pitchstone knapping further south in Scotland. [1]

As we put it in 2020:

“[T]he most exciting revelation from Hugo’s work is that the manner in which pitchstone was worked involved techniques which were different from those evident in most Orcadian assemblages.” [2]

2018: Pitchstone blade from Structure Eight. (📷 Jo Bourne)

2018: Pitchstone fragment in situ in Structure Eight. (📷 Jo Bourne)

2018: Recovered pitchstone fragment from Structure Eight. (📷 Jo Bourne)

2018: Pitchstone recovery from Structure Eight. (📷 Jo Bourne)

Whoever was working pitchstone in Structure Eight knew how it was knapped closer to source, suggesting that it arrived in Orkney with travellers from distant shores.

Although most of the Ness pitchstone came from Structure Eight, fragments found beneath it, in Structure Seventeen, shows the material was on site before Eight’s construction around 3100BC.

2024: Pitchstone fragment from Structure Seventeen. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

At the nearby Barnhouse settlement, the recovered pitchstone was found in two main concentrations – around the open-air hearth that preceded Structure Eight – a suspected peripheral area for inter-community gatherings and feasting [3] – and a central outdoor area surrounded by dwellings. [4]

The pitchstone fragment. (Paul Clark) — Ness pitchstone fragment from Structure Eight. (📷 Paul Clark)

None of the Barnhouse pitchstone – except one flake from above House Ten – had been retouched, something that was noted at the time as being typical when it was found far from its source. [4]

Analysis of the Barnhouse assemblage, however, suggests that pitchstone was also being worked on site. [5]

While it may have simply been considered a functional lithic material to the people of prehistoric Arran [6], further afield it perhaps accrued other meaning.

To anyone not familiar with it, even today pitchstone retains an exotic, out-of-the-ordinary air. That sense must have been amplified in Neolithic Orkney, particularly when its distinctive glossy appearance was combined with the tales of its far-away origins.

As such it was probably more than just a resource to fashion tools but a significant substance that represented many things – an exotic, visually distinct material that visibly highlighted its owners’ status and connections to worlds beyond Orkney.

Unworked obsidian - a material akin to pitchstone. (📷 Sigurd Towrie) — Unworked obsidian – a material akin to pitchstone. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Orkney is currently the furthest place from Arran where worked pitchstone has been found. But the fact it only occurs at two sites in the Stenness-Brodgar monument complex, implies that the network that brought the material to the islands was centred at this location and that movement outside this area was perhaps restricted. [1]

This ties in with the findings of lithics specialist Torben Ballin, who wrote:

“[T]he distribution of archaeological pitchstone throughout Scotland leaves little doubt that pitchstone was perceived as a very ‘special’ raw material by prehistoric people, and that the exchange of pitchstone was organised or even strictly controlled.” [6]

Notes

[1] Anderson-Whymark, H. (2020) Ness of Brodgar flaked stone assemblage: 2004-2018. (2020) In Card, N., Edmonds, M. and Mitchell, A. (eds) The Ness of Brodgar: As it Stands. The Orcadian: Kirkwall.
[2] Card, N., Edmonds, M. and Mitchell, A. (2020) As it Stands. In Card, N., Edmonds, M. and Mitchell, A. (eds) The Ness of Brodgar: As it Stands. The Orcadian: Kirkwall.
[3] Hill, J. and Richards, C. (2005) Structure Eight: Monumentality at Barnhouse. In Richards, C. (ed) Dwelling among the monuments: the Neolithic village of Barnhouse, Maeshowe passage grave and surrounding monuments at Stenness, Orkney. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
[4] Jones, A.M. and Richards, C. (2005) Living in Barnhouse. In Richards, C. (ed) Dwelling among the monuments: the Neolithic village of Barnhouse, Maeshowe passage grave and surrounding monuments at Stenness. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, pp. 23-56.
[5] Ballin, T.B. (2009) Archaeological Pitchstone in Northern Britain: Characterization and interpretation of an important prehistoric source.
[6] Ballin, T.B. (2013) ARO4: The Late Neolithic pitchstone artefacts from Barnhouse, Orkney – an unusual assemblage from an unusual site. Guard Archaeology Ltd. BAR British Series 476. BAR Publishing: Oxford.