The Arisaig Harpoon Head © West Highland Museum
This is a remarkable tale about a remarkable artifact that would have been lost to Scottish archaeology had it not been for a brave decision by a schoolgirl to disregard the views of her teachers over 50 years ago!
In July 2021, during a visit to the West Highland Museum, I was shown a photo of an object recently reported to curator Vanessa Martin. It was instantly clear that this was a complete Mesolithic harpoon head – a very rare find in Scottish archaeology, with only a handful of examples known. The finder, Fiona Bowie (née Black), lives in England, and a couple of months later the object made its way to the Museum.
Fiona has kindly told the story of its discovery in the early 1970s and what happened next. Each year her family, who lived in Lesbury (Northumberland), visited the Golden Sands campsite at Gorton Farm, Back of Keppoch, Arisaig, where the 12- or 13-year old Fiona and her brother played happily on the magnificent beaches and in the rock pools. On the last Saturday of one holiday, she spotted the harpoon head in the sand at the water’s edge, ‘between the main shore and the Isle of Ighe’, with the Isles of Muck, Eigg and Rùm visible on the horizon. Her dad was keen for it to be reported, but the Museum was shut on Sunday and so she took it home and showed it to two teachers – who promptly told her off, saying she should have left it on the beach (where it would have been washed away!) and notified the authorities. They also doubted its authenticity.
It was then put in Fiona’s mother’s cabinet, where it stayed until 1983 until her sons took it into their primary school – where once again a teacher queried its authenticity!
It was when Fiona was watching one of Neil Oliver’s TV programs, where he was talking about the prehistory of western Scotland, that she decided to hand it into a museum.
We are happy to report that the teachers were all wrong! This is a genuine Mesolithic biserially-barbed (i.e. with barbs on either side) detachable harpoon head, just under 12cm long and with a hole in its end to take a thong. It was designed for use in spearing large fish or marine mammals such as seals; the thong ensured that the head (and the attached prey) would remain attached to the hunter as the prey tried to escape. It appears to have been made of bone rather than antler, and to judge from the photograph, it does not seem to be of whalebone; a species identification by a faunal specialist is yet to be undertaken but the use of a red deer longbone seems most likely. While a hollow can be seen extending from the rear end of the hole, the hole itself is not heavily worn, so the object was probably not old when it was lost.
Other biserially-barbed harpoon heads are known from Scotland, with two fine examples from Macarthur Cave in Oban, plus one from Blackness Bay, Carriden in the Forth estuary, and one found in the bed of the River Irvine at Shewalton, North Ayrshire, on display in the National Museum of Scotland. Other findspots include Oronsay; Cumstoun, Dumfries and Galloway; Tarradale on the Black Isle; and, closer to Arisaig, a midden on Risga, south of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula.
How old is the Arisaig harpoon head? Well, direct radiocarbon dating of four other Scottish examples (from Macarthur Cave, Cumstoun, Shewalton and Carriden) has produced Late Mesolithic dates, two around 5700–5500 BC and two around 5200–4600 BC, while indirect dating of the Tarradale example suggests a later date, c.4200–4000 BC. While it would be good to know where the Arisaig example lies within this date range, this cannot be done without damaging it. Nevertheless, we can say that during the Late Mesolithic, the sea level at Arisaig will not have differed significantly from its present level (unlike in some other parts of Scotland).
We shall never know exactly how the Arisaig harpoon head came to be in the sand: was it a case of ‘one that got away’? A precious hunting weapon is unlikely to have been lost casually. It would certainly be worth exploring the area to check for other evidence of Mesolithic activity. As far as its discovery and later history are concerned, though, this is clearly an object that could so easily have ‘got away’, had it not been for the eagle-eyed Fiona.
The object has been reported to the Treasure Trove Unit and will be allocated in due course. Meanwhile, its discovery would have delighted Caroline, especially given her excavation of Mesolithic sites on Rùm.
