John Mercer (archaeologist)

John Barry Mercer (1934 - July 1982) was a British archaeologist, author and weaver.

Born in Las Palmas, Canaries to British parents, he was educated in Spain and England. He moved to Lealt on the Scottish island of Jura in the 1960s where he spent more than a decade researching and excavating Jura and establishing it as a significant Mesolithic site.

Mercer wrote a children's novel, Lizard Island Expedition (1965), drawing on his own experiences in the Balearics. He also published a guidebook to the islands of Colonsay, Gigha and Jura (1974) and several books on the Canary Islands. He also published a history of wool spinning.

Lizard Island Expedition (novel), Oliver and Boyd, 1965.
Canary Islands: Fuerteventura, David & Charles, 1973.
Hebridean Islands: Colonsay, Gigha, Jura, Blackie, 1974.
Spanish Sahara, Allen & Unwin, 1976
The Spinner's Workshop, Prism Press, 1978
The Canary Islanders : their prehistory, conquest, and survival, Collings, 1980.

Mercer, J (1968) 'Stone tools from a washing-limit deposit of the highest postglacial transgression, Lealt Bay, Isle of Jura', Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (Proc Soc Antiq Scot), 100 (1967-8), 1-46.
Mercer, J (1970) 'Flint tools from the present tidal zone, Lussa Bay, Isle of Jura, Argyll', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 102, (1969–70), 1-30.
Mercer, J (1971) 'A regression-time stone-workers' camp, 33 ft OD, Lussa River, Isle of Jura', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 103 (1970-1), 1-32.
Mercer, J (1972) 'Roomed and Roomless Grain-Drying Kilns: the Hebridean Boundary?', Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society (Trans Ancient Mon Soc), New Series, 19 (1972), 27-36.
Mercer, J (1972) 'Microlithic and Bronze Age camps, 75–26 ft OD, N Cam, Isle of Jura', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 104 (1971-2), 1-22.
Mercer, J (1974) 'Glenbatrick Waterhole, a microlithic site on the Isle of Jura', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 105 (1972-4), 9-32.
Mercer, J (1980) 'Lussa Wood I: the late-glacial and early post-glacial occupation of Jura', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 110 (1979–80), 1-31.
Mercer, J and Searight, S (1986) 'Glengarrisdale: confirmation of Jura's third microlithic phase', ''Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 116 (1986), 41-55.

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