tiompan wrote:
StoneGloves wrote:
Neat stuff ! Well, it is glass - of volcanic extraction. Wasn't there a Scottish source that was traded over long distances ? That may match up. Presumably, like flint, it was shifted as roughouts, with fragments being struck off to become the finished item. And then some would snap, of course, to be recycled as something smaller...
Arran pitchstone which is similar is sourced exclusively on the eponymous island . I was at a dig on Ben Lawers recently when a small worked piece was dug up . Not sure but I think obsidian is confined to the west of Scotland and doesn't necessarily have a main site .
I'm astounded by the synchronous goings on at TMA. A couple of days ago I was thinking a road trip was in order. I initially considered the Isle of Man but my mind went back to the Ben Lawlers pitchstone and I settled on a trip to Arran at the beginning of October.
Consequently I've been doing a little research on the pitchstone sources on Arran.
Then what happens? I go to TMA and low and behold a debate covering Ben Lawlers, pitchstone and Arran.
It's hard to find images of pitchstone implements on the web, most of the reports tend to mention flakes but pitchstone is definitely part of the same family as obsidian i.e a volcanic glass.
there are some images of unworked pitchstone here
http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch/SummaryResults.fwx?collection=all&Searchterm=pitchstone+and+arran&browsemode=on&browseset=Arran+pitchstones
There is also the Scottish pitchstone project which is currently recording all known pieces of archaeological pitchstone onto a database with the aim of re-interpreting the distribution of pitchstone across northern Britain.
cheers
fitz
