Star Carr

Star Carr
History
View of the Star Carr site looking NWW
Shown within England
Location	Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England
Coordinates	54°12′51″N 00°25′24″W / 54.21417°N 0.42333°W / 54.21417; -0.42333Coordinates: 54°12′51″N 00°25′24″W / 54.21417°N 0.42333°W / 54.21417; -0.42333
Type	Settlement
Founded	Approximately 8770 BC
Abandoned	Approximately 8460 BC
Periods	Mesolithic

The Mesolithic The Epipaleolithic This box:
↑ Paleolithic
Mesolithic Europe Epipaleolithic Europe Fosna–Hensbacka culture Komsa culture Maglemosian culture Lepenski vir culture Kunda culture Narva culture Komornica culture Swiderian culture Epipaleolithic Transylvania Mesolithic Transylvania Tardenoisian Schela Cladovei culture Mesolithic Southeastern Europe Levant Levantine corridor Natufian Khiamian Trialetian Zarzian

↓ Neolithic ↓ Stone Age

Star Carr is a Mesolithic archaeological site in North Yorkshire, England. It is around five miles (8.0 km) south of Scarborough. It is generally regarded as the most important and informative Mesolithic site in Great Britain. It is as important to the Mesolithic period as Stonehenge is to the Neolithic period or Scandinavian York is to understanding Viking age Britain.

The site was occupied during the early Mesolithic archaeological period, contemporary with the preboreal and boreal climatic periods. Though the ice age had ended and temperatures were close to modern averages, sea levels had not yet risen sufficiently to separate Britain from continental Europe. Highlights among the finds include; Britain’s oldest structure, 21 red deer stag skull-caps that may have been head-dresses and nearly 200 projectile, or harpoon, points made of red deer antler. These organic materials are preserved due to burial in waterlogged peat. Normally all that remains on Mesolithic sites are stone tools.

Excavation of the site began in 1948, a year after artefacts were first noticed by an amateur archaeologist. The site is most famous for some of the extremely rare artefacts discovered during the original excavations but its importance has been reinforced by new understandings of the nature and extent of the Mesolithic archaeology in the area and reinterpretations of the original material.

Star Carr now lies under farmland at the eastern end of the Vale of Pickering. During the Mesolithic the site was near the outflow at the western end of a paleolake, known as Lake Flixton. At the end of the last ice age a combination of glacial and post-glacial geomorphology caused the area to drain to the west (away from the shortest-distance to the sea at Filey). The basin filled by Lake Flixton was probably created by glacial 'scarring'.

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Wikipedia