The site of Morton, Tentsmuir Sands in Fife, has been extensively excavated. A littoral site, it produced an assemblage of stone tools made from a whole range of rocks. There were also some bone tools. Postholes have been interpreted as the foundations of shelters made from branches and/or skins. Fishing was an important activity at the site. Identifiable fish bones were discovered within midden material. The most important fish caught at Morton was the Gadus morhua, or cod. Studies of the migratory patterns of North Sea cod suggest that the site was occupied in the second half of the year. The number of cod bones found at the site suggests that they were caught frequently and in vast quantities. The size of many of the bones indicates that they were caught from deep water, so like the Mesolithic communities on Oronsay, the hunter-gatherers of Morton appear to have used boats - indeed one was discovered in the nineteenth century at the site which was 4.5m in length and about a metre wide with a dug-out cavity measuring 1.8m by 0.6m deep. Other fish species found include haddock, turbot, sturgeon and salmon or sea-trout as well as twenty different kinds of marine molluscs and a large quantity of common crab remains. In addition, the bones of deer, wild cattle, wild pig, hedgehog, bank vole, guillemot, gannet, cormorant and razorbill were found. Their presence in the assemblage shows that the hunter-gatherers of Morton were not only exploiting the resources of the coastline, but were also foraging from inland areas. Stone tools found in association with the bones suggest that some of the animals were butchered on the site. The Morton evidence suggests discontinuous occupation by small groups ranging over a territory in which they seasonally exploited a variety of habitats - coastal, estaurine, lowland and upland. Radiocarbon determinations suggest a concentration of occupation around 6500 to 6300BP.
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