Artifacts recovered at Star Carr included over 200 barbed spearpoints, elk antler mattocks, bone scrapers, and masks or headdresses made from red deer antlers. Animals represented in the faunal collections included red deer, roe deer, wild oxen, elk, wild pig, and waterfowl, but a curious lack of fish or molluscan remains, given its location.
Star Carr Excavated
Excavated between 1949-1951 by Grahame Clark, Clark's book, Excavations at Star Carr, is a classic archaeological text. The original decades of investigation at Star Carr were focused on the remarkable faunal preservation at the site, and what the range of animals were available to hunter-gatherers living there. Additional stable isotope analysis of the faunal remains suggested some interesting patterns of use (or not) of the lake resources.More recent excavations at the site were begun by Paul Mellars at Cambridge University in the 1990s, and they have been focused on gaining a wider perspective of the settlement of the Malton valley, including sites such as Seamer Carr and Flixton 1.
Sources
Clark, J. G. D. 1954. Excavations at Star Carr. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Dark, Petra. 2003. Dogs, a crane (not duck) and diet at Star Carr: a response to Schulting and Richards. Journal of Archaeological Science 50:1353–1356.
Donahue, Randolph E. and William Lovis. 2006. Regional settlement systems in Mesolithic northern England: Scalar issues in mobility and territoriality. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 25:248-258.
Mellars, Paul A. 1990 A major 'plateau' in the radiocarbon time-scale at circa 9650 b.p.: The evidence from Star Carr (Yorkshire). Antiquity 64:836-841.
Wheeler, Alwynne. 1978. Why were there no fish remains at Star Carr. Journal of Archaeological Science 5:85-89
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
