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Star Carr was discovered in 1947 by an amateur archaeologist. Excavations at the site were directed by Grahame Clark (1907-1995) of Cambridge University, and were seen as a 'classic multidiscplinary study'. This was one of the very first Mesolithic sites in Britain to be radiocarbon dated, and was thought to date to around 9,600 BP. The site was originally situated on the edge of a large lake (now mostly filled in). Low lying marshland meant that quite a lot of organic material was preserved. Archaeological remains include around 17,000 flint artefacts, animal bones, stone and amber beads, rolls of birch bark, and a wooden paddle. The animal bone assemblage was dominated by large herbivores, such as red deer, aurochs and elk. Beaver, domesticated dog, and bird (including water fowl) bones were also found. The site showed extensive use of red deer antler as a raw material. Some antlers showed evidence of groove and splinter techniques, and stag antler frontlets may have been used as headdresses, perhaps in some ritual behaviour. There was little to suggest that dwellings had been built at the site, but a 'brushwood platform' of birch branches and other material was found. Strangely for its lakeside location, there was a total absence of fishbone. Clark's initial 1954 report interpreted the site as a winter campsite, used by perhaps 3 or 4 families. He felt the site was linked to the hunting of red deer, and was used for the processing of antler and skins. In 1972, Clark re-interpreted the site. He still saw it as a winter campsite, but linked it to the year-round exploitation of red deer. Later authors have questioned Clark's ideas on a variety of grounds. Mike Pitts (1979) argued that edible plant species were more important in the Mesolithic economy than Clark acknowledged. T Douglas Price (1982) argued that the absence of fish bones from the site did not mean that fish were not available or exploited. The remains of birds which fed on fish indicate that there were fish in the lake, but these may have been caught and processed elsewhere on the lakeside. Tony Legge and Peter Rowley-Conwy (1988) proposed that the site was occupied during the early summer, with red deer antlers being collected and brought to the site, rather than the antlers being evidence of hunting. While Clark viewed Star Carr as a settlement site, Pitts saw it as a processing site for animal skins due to the high frequency of scrapers and burins among the flint assemblage. The waterside location of the site supported this view - hides would be softened in water to make processing easier. Seamus Caulfield (1978) wrote that the animal remains showed Star Carr to be a butchering site - there were few meat bearing joints found, suggesting that these were taken off to a settlement elsewhere. John M Andresen et al (1981) saw Star Carr as a hunting site, where animals were driven into the soft mashy ground where they could be killed easily. Price argued that the whole site has not been excavated, and Star Carr may only have been a rubbish dump on the edge of a residential camp. New research by Paul Mellars and Petra Dark (1998) has shown that the
site is almost 1000 years older than previously believed. They saw a complex
and repeated pattern of occupation on the site spanning at least three
centuries, and evidence for the frequent and apparently deliberate burning
of the local reedswamp vegetation to improve access to the lake and perhaps
attract animal populations. The new research has also revealed evidence
for the construction of a substantial wooden trackway leading to the lake
edge, made of carefully split and worked timbers - the oldest evidence
for systematic carpentry so far documented in Europe. |
'Revising the Mesolithic at Star Carr' by Paul Mellars, British Archaeology, Oct 1999 |
