Nicola Milner

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.

The Discovery of Mesolithic Red Deer at Skipsea Withow

Abstract Skipsea Withow is well known for producing a barbed point and faunal remains, thought to date to the Early Mesolithic period, over a century ago. More recently bones were recovered from the eroding cliff face and have been analysed. Although it was considered that they might be elk (Alces alces) due to their large size, it was demonstrated that they are red deer (Cervus elaphus). Further examination suggested that they represent two individuals of slightly different ages. They have been dated to the Early Mesolithic period and the dates overlap with those obtained from the well-known site of Star Carr, located further north in the Vale of Pickering. It is considered unlikely that the red deer bones from Skipsea Withow represent two natural deaths on the edge of the mere, and it is possible that they are the remains of humanly deposited bones; a practice seen at Star Carr.

Lessons from Star Carr on the vulnerability of organic archaeological remains to environmental change.

Significance Wetland deposits provide a unique repository of archaeological and environmental information, preserving organic remains rarely found elsewhere. Star Carr is an impressive example, having provided unique evidence for human interactions with the landscape at the end of the last ice age. Tragically, here we provide experimental evidence that human modifications of the local environment are leading to changes in the site’s geochemistry, resulting in the rapid loss of bone and wood artifacts. Our research demands a reassessment of the assumption that sites such as Star Carr should be preserved in situ for the benefit of future researchers and demonstrates that potential changes to the burial environment must be considered before such a policy is pursued. Examples of wetland deposits can be found across the globe and are known for preserving organic archaeological and environmental remains that are vitally important to our understanding of past human–environment interactions. The Mesolithic site of Star Carr (Yorkshire, United Kingdom) represents one of the most influential archives of human response to the changing climate at the end of the last glacial in Northern Europe. A hallmark of the site since its discovery in 1948 has been the exceptional preservation of its organic remains. Disturbingly, recent excavations have suggested that the geochemistry of the site is no longer conducive to such remarkable survival of organic archaeological and environmental materials. Microcosm (laboratory-based) burial experiments have been undertaken, alongside analysis of artifacts excavated from the site, to assess the effect of these geochemical changes on the remaining archaeological material. By applying a suite of macroscopic and molecular analyses, we demonstrate that the geochemical changes at Star Carr are contributing to the inexorable and rapid loss of valuable archaeological and paleoenvironmental information. Our findings have global implications for other wetland sites, particularly archaeological sites preserved in situ.