NGR: NM 847 294
NMR: NM82NW 20
Canmore: 22947
SCD: 1078
Excavation: Lorn Archaeological and Historical Society, 1990.
Curation: ?
Burials: MNI: 5+
Finds: Bronze Age food vessel, Bronze Age flint, worked antler, quartz artefacts.
Date: Neolithic (1)
14C: 4800, 4830, 4690, 4330 bp (OxA-7663, 7664, 7665, 7890) on human bone. 4765, 5190 bp (OxA-3739, 3740) on bone and antler; 5060, 4980 bp (GU-2796, 2797) on charcoal; 5440, 5410 bp (GU-2898, 2899) on marine shell.
Bibliography:
Bartosiewicz L., Zapata L., & Bonsall C. (2010) A tale of two shell middens: the natural versus the cultural in “Obanian” deposits at Carding Mill Bay, Oban, western Scotland. In: VanDerwarker, A.M. and Peres, T.M. (editors) Integrating Zooarchaeology and Paleoethnobotany: a Consideration of Issues, Methods, and Cases. New York: Springer. 205-225.
Bonsall, C. & Smith, C. (1992) New AMS dates for antler and bone artifacts from Great Britain. Mesolithic Miscellany 13: 28-34.
Bonsall, C. & Sutherland, D.G. (1992) The Oban caves. In Walker, M.J.C. et al. (eds) The South-West Scottish Highlands. Field Guide. Quaternary Research Association, Cambridge, pp. 115-121.
Bownes, J.M., Ascough, P.L., Cook, G.T., Murray, I. & Bonsall, C. (2017) Using stable isotopes and a Bayesian mixing model (FRUITS) to investigate diet at the early Neolithic site of Carding Mill Bay, Scotland. Radiocarbon 59: 1275-1294.
Bronk Ramsey, C., Pettitt, P.B., Hedges, R.E.M., Hodgins, G.W.L. & Owen, D.C. (2000) Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry datelist 30. Archaeometry 42: 459-479.
Connock, K.D. (1988) Carding Mill Bay (Kilmore and Kilbride parish) shell midden and later inhumation. Discovery and Excavation in Scotland 1988: 23.
Connock, K.D. (1990) A shell midden at Carding Mill Bay, Oban. Scottish Archaeological Review 7: 74-76.
Connock, K.D., Finlayson, B. & Mills, C.M. (1992) Excavation of a shell midden site at Carding Mill Bay near Oban, Scotland. Glasgow Archaeological Journal 17: 25-38.
Hedges, R.E.M. (1993) Radiocarbon dates form the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry datelist 17. Archaeometry 35: 305-326.
Macklin, M.G. & Rumsby, B.T. (1991) Geomorphological survey of caves and rockshelters in the Oban District, Scotland. Unpublished report, Historic Scotland, Edinburgh.
Schulting R.J. & Richards, M.P. (2002) The wet, the wild and the domesticated: the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition on the west coast of Scotland. European Journal of Archaeology 5:147–89.
Tolan-Smith, C. (2001) The Caves of Mid Argyll: an Archaeology of Human Use. SAS Monograph Series 20. Edinburgh.