North American driftwood, especially Picea(spruce), from archaeological sites in the Hebrides and Northern Isles of Scotland

Published Date
Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology
30 September 1992, Vol.73(1):49–56, doi:10.1016/0034-6667(92)90044-H

Festschrift For Professor Van Zeist

Author 
J.H. Dickson 

• Botany Department, University of Glasgow, UK

Received 30 June 1989. Available online 4 April 2003. 

Abstract

From the Neolithic to the 16th century AD in age, 18 archaeological sites in the Western and Northern Islands of Scotland have yielded wood and charcoal of Abies, Larix cf. laricina, Pinus section Strobus and especially Picea. All these exotic taxa very probably had a North American provenance and were beached by the North Atlantic Current. The archaeological contexts indicate that the driftwood was often used as fuel and occasionally for constructional purposes.

• ∗ 
  Correspondence to: Dr. J.H. Dickson, Botany Department, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK.

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