Editing Stonehaven (section)

== Pre-history and archaeology ==
Stonehaven is the site of prehistoric events evidenced by finds at [[Fetteresso Castle]] and [[Neolithic]] [[pottery]] excavations from the [[Spurryhillock]] area.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Derek Alexander|display-authors=etal|year=1997|title=Excavation of pits containing decorated Neolithic pottery and early lithic material of possible Mesolithic date at Spurryhillock, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire|url=http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-352-1/dissemination/pdf/vol_127/127_017_027.pdf|journal=Proc Soc Antiq Scot|volume=127|pages=17–27|access-date=21 December 2012}}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In 2004, archaeological work by CFA Archaeology, in advance of the building of the Aberdeen to Lochside Natural Gas Pipeline, found two short [[Cist|cists]] burials containing cremated remains to the southwest of Stonehaven. [[Radiocarbon dating]] put the burials in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, which was the Early Bronze Age in Scotland. The burials contained [[stone tool]] artifacts and shale/cannel coal beads.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Vol 63 (2016): Excavation of two Early Bronze Age Short Cists and a Prehistoric Pit at Lindsayfield, near Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire {{!}} Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports|url=http://journals.socantscot.org/index.php/sair/issue/view/92|access-date=2021-08-28|website=journals.socantscot.org|archive-date=28 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210828120515/http://journals.socantscot.org/index.php/sair/issue/view/92|url-status=live}}</ref> That same year, researchers at the [[National Museums of Scotland]] and [[Yale University]] announced that a fossil found by an amateur paleontologist the previous year was the earliest known fossil of a land-dwelling animal. The fossil was about 420 million years old.<ref>{{cite web |title=Life on earth began in... Stonehaven |url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/life-earth-began-stonehaven-2461239?amp |website=The Scotsman |date=25 January 2004 |publisher=National World Publishing |access-date=26 August 2022}}</ref>