Radiocarbon Dates for Northton, Harris: Three radiocarbon dates have been obtained from the Neolithic and Beaker settlement site at Northton in South Harris, Outer Hebrides, briefly reported on in ANTIQUITY Some years ago (Simpson, 1966). The measurements were made by the British Museum Research Laboratory on the protein (collagen) fraction of animal bone from the three main occupation horizons:
Beaker II 1531 ± 54 be (BM-707)
Beaker I 1654 ± 70 bc (BM-706)
Neolithic II 2461 ± 79 be (BM-705)

The occupation horizons were separated from each other by layers of virtually sterile windblown sand. The pottery from the Neolithic II horizon comprised regional forms of Western Neolithic wares similar to those from sites on the adjacent island of North Uist; there were also sherds of a number of Unstan Bowls. (A few sherds were recovered from the Neolithic I horizon, and these were not dissimilar to those from the Neolithic II) The Beaker I horizon was the main occupation level of this period, and where classifiable the pottery appears to belong to Clarke's Northern British series. There were two stone house structures associated with this phase (Simpson, 1971). Similar pottery styles were present in the Beaker II horizon, but there was less material.

In the Neolithic II levels the contemporaneity of Unstan bowls and the local multiple carinated Hebridean wares with incised decoration had already been demonstrated. The midthird-millennium date for this horizon suggests a considerably earlier date than had hitherto been suspected (Henshall, 1972, 178) and would add support to the argument that this style first developed in north-west Scotland, later to be transmitted to the Orkneys (McInnes, 1969, 22). The form and decoration of these bowls has been compared with vessels in the Fengate style but the Northton date suggests that the northern forms developed several centuries before the appearance of Fengate wares in the south, and must represent a quite separate tradition developing on parallel but independent lines.