Distillery Cave
Excavation
W. Turner, 1890.
Curation
National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, Edinburgh (HL 381-389).
Burials
MNI: 12+ (5 adults, 7 juveniles).
Finds
Flints, antler tool.
Dates
| Period | Reliability |
|---|---|
| Neolithic | 14C date obtained directly on human remains |
14C
3780 bp (OxA-4509) on antler spatula 4914 bp (SUERC-68702), 4631 bp (SUERC-68703) and 4881 bp (SUERC-68704) on human bone.
External References
Bibliography
Hallen, Y. (1994) Re-evaluation of the Human Skeletal Remains from MacKay Cave, Distillery Cave, and MacArthur Cave, Oban. Unpublished archive report, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.
Hedges, R.E.M. et al. (1995) Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system. Archaeometry datelist 20. Archaeometry 37: 417-430.
Lacaille, A.D. (1954) The Stone Age in Scotland. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Newell, R.R. et al. (1979) The skeletal remains of Mesolithic man in Western Europe: an evaluative catalogue. Journal of Human Evolution 8: 1-228.
Olalde, I. et al. (2017). The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe. Available at bioRxiv preprint server
Oldham, A.D. (1975) The Caves of Scotland. Privately printed.
Saville, A. & Hallen, Y. (1994) The ‘Obanian Iron Age’: human remains from the Oban cave sites, Argyll, Scotland. Antiquity 68: 715-723.
Sheridan, A. et al. (2019) A summary round-up list of Scottish archaeological human remains that have been sampled/analysed for DNA as of January 2019. Discovery and Excavation in Scotland 19: 227-250.
Tolan-Smith, C. (2001) The Caves of Mid Argyll: an Archaeology of Human Use. SAS Monograph Series 20. Edinburgh.
Turner, W. (1895) On human and animal remains found in caves at Oban, Argyllshire. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 29: 410-438.
Article Author Graham Mullan