Chantal Conneller

Becoming deer. Corporeal transformations at Star Carr

This article examines the role of red deer antler ‘masks’ recovered from the Early Mesolithic site of Star Carr in northern England. It explores the agency of animals and the type of agency attributable to objects made from parts of animals at the site. When humans use or wear objects that are made from animal parts, I argue that there are also important implications for the way in which the human body is conceived. This article goes on to explore the types of body produced from the taking on of objects made from animal remains and the implications that this has for the ways both humans and animals were perceived during the Mesolithic.

Substantial settlement in the European Early Mesolithic: new research at Star Carr

The authors rewrite the character of Early Mesolithic settlement in Europe with their new research at one of its most famous sites. The picture of small mobile pioneering groups colonising new land is thrown into contention: far from being a small hunter-gatherer camp, Star Carr in 9000 cal BC extended for nearly 2ha and involved the construction of an estimated 30m of lakeside waterfront and at least one post-built house. With some justice, they suspect that the ‘small groups’ of Early Mesolithic Europe may have their rationale in the small excavations of archaeologists.

Technological Analysis of the World's Earliest Shamanic Costume: A Multi-Scalar, Experimental Study of a Red Deer Headdress from the Early Holocene Site of Star Carr, North Yorkshire, UK

Shamanic belief systems represent the first form of religious practice visible within the global archaeological record. Here we report on the earliest known evidence of shamanic costume: modified red deer crania headdresses from the Early Holocene site of Star Carr (c. 11 kya). More than 90% of the examples from prehistoric Europe come from this one site, establishing it as a place of outstanding shamanistic/cosmological significance. Our work, involving a programme of experimental replication, analysis of macroscopic traces, organic residue analysis and 3D image acquisition, metrology and visualisation, represents the first attempt to understand the manufacturing processes used to create these artefacts. The results produced were unexpected—rather than being carefully crafted objects, elements of their production can only be described as expedient.

A new view from La Cotte de St Brelade, Jersey

Did Neanderthal hunters drive mammoth herds over cliffs in mass kills? Excavations at La Cotte de St Brelade in the 1960s and 1970s uncovered heaps of mammoth bones, interpreted as evidence of intentional hunting drives. New study of this Middle Palaeolithic coastal site, however, indicates a very different landscape to the featureless coastal plain that was previously envisaged. Reconsideration of the bone heaps themselves further undermines the ‘mass kill’ hypothesis, suggesting that these were simply the final accumulations of bone at the site, undisturbed and preserved in situ when the return to a cold climate blanketed them in wind-blown loess.

Star Carr in a Postglacial Lakescape: 60 Years of Research

Abstract Star Carr has an international reputation in archaeology but it was just a small part of a former lakescape which has been systematically investigated at various periods over the last 60 years. The palaeo-lake and associated sites were first investigated by John W. Moore, a local amateur archaeologist and his findings led to the better known excavations of Grahame Clark. After a hiatus in research, survey and excavation resumed in the 1970s and has been ongoing ever since. The support over the last 25 years of the Vale of Pickering Research Trust has enabled the palaeo-Lake Flixton to be mapped prompting the discovery of new Early Mesolithic sites, resulting in an unparalleled understanding of an Early Mesolithic lakescape. In addition, Star Carr has been revisited at various times revealing new insights and further questions that remain to be answered. This paper presents a history of the investigations from the initial discoveries of Moore to the present day, and considers a range of issues including support, resourcing and the training of future generations of archaeologists.

The archaeology of persistent places: The Palaeolithic case of la Cotte de St Brelade, Jersey

Abstract Excavations at the Middle Pleistocene site of La Cotte de St Brelade, on the island of Jersey in the English Channel, have revealed a long sequence of occupation. The continued use of the site by Neanderthals throughout an extended period of changing climate and environment reveals how, despite changes in the types of behaviour recorded at the site, La Cotte emerged as a persistent place in the memory and landscape of its early hominin inhabitants. The sites status as a persistent place for these people suggests a level of social and cognitive development permitting reference to and knowledge of places distant in time and space as long ago as at least MIS 7.

A Final Upper Palaeolithic Site at La Sagesse Convent, Romsey, Hampshire

Excavations at La Sagesse Convent, Romsey, uncovered a Final Upper Palaeolithic flint assemblage representing an open-air, short-term camp. The site is in the Test Valley on a low gravel terrace at the edge of the river system. Two scatters were found. Although not in situ, little lateral movement is indicated for at least one of these scatters from which several core reduction sequences could be determined through a programme of refitting. The other scatter appears to have suffered more post-depositional disturbance. One scatter appears to have functioned as a knapping station, while the other may have been an area of tool production. Chronological, technological, and cultural affinities are discussed and it is concluded that the flint assemblage belongs with the Final Upper Palaeolithic Hengistbury-type industries, probably dating to the second part of the Windermere interstadial (c. 12,500-11,000 cal BC; 12,000-11,000 BP).

The resilience of postglacial hunter-gatherers to abrupt climate change

Understanding the resilience of early societies to climate change is an essential part of exploring the environmental sensitivity of human populations. There is significant interest in the role of abrupt climate events as a driver of early Holocene human activity, but there are very few well-dated records directly compared with local climate archives. Here, we present evidence from the internationally important Mesolithic site of Star Carr showing occupation during the early Holocene, which is directly compared with a high-resolution palaeoclimate record from neighbouring lake beds. We show that—once established—there was intensive human activity at the site for several hundred years when the community was subject to multiple, severe, abrupt climate events that impacted air temperatures, the landscape and the ecosystem of the region. However, these results show that occupation and activity at the site persisted regardless of the environmental stresses experienced by this society. The Star Carr population displayed a high level of resilience to climate change, suggesting that postglacial populations were not necessarily held hostage to the flickering switch of climate change. Instead, we show that local, intrinsic changes in the wetland environment were more significant in determining human activity than the large-scale abrupt early Holocene climate events.A high-resolution local palaeoclimatic archive is correlated to the early Holocene human behavioural record at the British Mesolithic site of Star Carr. Despite environmental stresses at this time, intensive human activity persisted over centuries, suggesting resilience to climate change.

Book reviews - Boris Valentin. Jalons pour une paléohistoire des derniers chasseurs (XIV e – VI e millénaire avant J.-C.) (Cahiers Archéologiques de Paris 1). 326 pages, 81 illustrations. 2008. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne; 978-2-8594-4597-3 paperback €35.

and the essays on new technological developments, with ceramics considered by Gheorghiu and metals by Ottaway and Roberts. The latter were amongst the most broad-scale essays, and were also underpinned by extensive (on average 160-item) bibliographies in a variety of languages, making plain that the fuller study of European archaeology requires consultation of a formidable range of literature. Hofmann and Whittle’s chapter is one of only two where most sources were written in languages other than English, whereas in some chapters (in my view a matter for regret) over 90% of the literature cited is in English; over the entire volume it is 75% (see diagram).