Howburn is a multicomponent open air site located at Howburn Farm, about 7 kilometers frmo the town of Biggar in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. Occupations identified within the farmstead include the Late Upper Paleolithic, Later Mesolithic, Early Neolithic, Late Neolithic, Early Bronze Age and Roman period.
Although considerable mixing of the site has occurred, researchers were able to pick out the Upper Paleolithic stone tools and associated debitage based on chert types. Federmesser blades, tanged points, piercers (Zinken), scrapers, backed knives, burins and microliths were identified as having come from the UP assemblage. Ballin and colleagues tentatively assign this component to the Terminal Paleolithic Federmesser period, 12,000-11,000 years BP.
Howburn was identified during surface survey by the Biggar Archaeology Group during 2003 and 2005; testing and additional excavations was undertaken in 2005-2006.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to the Azilian culture, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Ballin TB, Saville A, Tipping R, and Ward TAM. 2010. An Upper Palaeolithic flint and chert assemblage from Howburn Farm, South Lanarkshire, Scotland: First results. Oxford Journal Of Archaeology 29(4):323-360.
