After more than 50 columns exploring the archaeology of the British Isles through a geographic lens, I begin here a new thematic focus: that of ‘great’ sites visited by Current Archaeology down the years. As I neared the end of my tour of the four nations, I reflected on the enduring power of a ‘great’ site. Sometimes it is the physical presence of a location (Maiden Castle springs to mind here); other times, it is the discoveries made (think of Sutton Hoo, whose treasures never fail to awe). But in some cases ‘greatness’ is more subtle: a site can be ‘great’ without having much to see above ground, and its significance may only become clear after years of analysis. It is with these thoughts in mind that I commence with Star Carr, near Scarborough in North Yorkshire. Discovered in 1947 by amateur archaeologist John Moore (and subject to fieldwork in 1949-1951 by Grahame Clark, 1985-1997 by Tim Schadla-Hall and Paul Mellars, and since the early 2000s by Nicky Milner, Chantal Conneller, and Barry Taylor), Star Carr’s claim to greatness is straightforward: it is consistently considered to be the most important and informative Mesolithic site in the whole of Great Britain.
Current Archaeology has visited Star Carr regularly across the decades, commencing in CA 26 (May 1971), reporting on a conference on British prehistory that included a presentation from Grahame Clark about the seasonal population density anticipated at the site. CA 48 (January 1975) followed up with more on this theory, and CA 153 (July 1997) updated the story with the latest thinking on the subject some 20 years later. The wider legacy of Grahame Clark’s thinking about the site is then explored in CA 155 (December 1997), reporting on a symposium in his memory following his death aged 88 in 1995.
of the Mesolithic structures found at Star Carr.
MESOLITHIC MENAGERIES
The 1990s and early 2000s saw a change of focus in CA’s reporting on Star Carr, moving away from the previously dominant theories of Grahame Clark. New studies of materials from the site and its comparators were linked to the latest scientific analysis, including that of the evidence for dogs from the site: the oldest known dog remains in the UK being one of Star Carr’s multiple claims to greatness. The research included analysis of their primarily fish-based diets, as reported in CA 124 (May 1991). (For those of you curious of this subject, see also CA 301, April 2015, about the wider archaeology of dogs down the ages.) CA 210 (July 2007) then reported on the evidence for beavers from this and other sites, and CA 229 (April 2009) examined how the dogs may have hunted – and the beavers been hunted – revealing a sophisticated social structure evidenced by close-range stalking strategy attacks by individual predators as opposed to a larger group stampede.
HOME IS WHERE THE HEARTH IS
CA 248 (November 2010) is then the start of the next cycle of reporting on Star Carr. This issue revealed another reason for the site’s greatness: the presence of the oldest house in Britain. Identified by new fieldwork, the circular post-built structure measures 3.5m in diameter and was dated to between 9200 and 8500 BC, at least 500 years earlier than the previously known oldest such structure from Howick in Northumberland (see CA 189, December 2003). CA 415 (October 2024) recently brought this discovery right up to date, reporting from the Museum Gardens in York, where a temporary replica of one of the houses had been constructed.
perceptions of the lives of early settlers in northern Europe.
Deep dives into the fieldwork that led to the discovery of the Star Carr house – later proven to be one of multiple houses – came in CA 275 (February 2013) and CA 282 (September 2013). The significance of the work undertaken at this time cannot be overemphasised: it transformed our understanding of the site and of Clark’s earlier interpretation of it, demonstrating Star Carr to have been far larger, more complex, and more sophisticated than he ever imagined, stretching over nearly 20,000m2, with flint- and
wood-working sites alongside a riverside timber platform, as well as the aforementioned houses. And beyond the site and its finds came new insights into life here and more broadly in the Mesolithic: of ritual practices and hunting behaviours; of seasonality and population movement; of the tools and techniques used by these communities not just to survive but to thrive. These new analyses took years to investigate fully, hence CA 349 (April 2019) returning to give an update with the latest thinking, thanks to the publication of the detailed site report. Nor did this work go unrewarded: the project won CA’s ‘Research Project of the Year’ award twice, once in 2014 (see CA 290, May 2014) and again in 2020 (see CA 362, May 2020), an unprecedented honour in the history of the magazine and another claim to greatness for the site.
ART AND SCIENCE DOWN THE AGES
The most recent round of reporting from Star Carr commenced in CA 314 (May 2016), sharing further justification for its ‘great site’ status: the discovery of Britain’s oldest art, a shale pendant etched with abstract designs that could have been worn on a cord threaded through a perforation in its top corner. An interesting counterpoint to the discovery comes in CA 337 (April 2018), which reported on a Mesolithic ‘crayon’ from nearby Lake Flixton (for more on Mesolithic sites in this area see also CA 397, April 2023). Another part of the creativity evidenced at Star Carr was explored in CA 316 (July 2016), examining the famous deer-antler headdresses thought to have been used in shamanic rituals here. The cultural impact of these objects into the present-day was highlighted in CA 325 (April 2017), at the time that they were depicted on one of eight stamps in an ‘Ancient Britain’ stamp set (see www.collectgbstamps.co.uk/explore/issues/?issue=22760).
On a more sombre note, CA 322 (January 2017) and CA 387 (June 2022) examined the ongoing problems
of managing this highly sensitive site in the face of environmental change (especially the drying of the peat, which threatens the survival of organic materials). CA 339 (June 2018) provided a neat counterpoint to this, exploring the evidence from the site itself for how its occupants coped with climate change during their own era. This is a serious place to end my review of a location that I am sure you will agree is truly one of the great sites of British archaeology.
For more information about Star Carr, see www.starcarr.com. The site is active farmland, and nothing of the original site or excavations remains above ground, so it is not suitable for visitors. However, you can learn about it in an exhibition currently running at the Yorkshire Museum in York (www. yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/exhibition/star-carr-life-after-the-ice), and other finds from the site are displayed in Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and in the British Museum. The site’s scheduled monument entry is https:// historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1401425.
About the author
Joe Flatman completed a PhD in medieval archaeology at the University of Southampton in 2003, and since then has held positions in universities, and local and – most recently – central government. Since March 2019, he has been a Consultancy Manager in the National Trust’s London and South-East Region, leading a team working on Trust sites across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. You can follow him on X: @joeflatman.
