Mesolithic Environments at Star Carr, the Eastern Vale of Pickering and Environs: Local and Regional Contexts

Abstract

Abstract Star Carr in the eastern Vale of Pickering is an emblematic site for the British Early Mesolithic and for the development of wetland archaeology, being one of the first studies where scientific techniques of environmental reconstruction were integrated within an archaeological research strategy, allowing detailed understanding of site conditions and the environmental context of human activities. Pollen diagrams from Star Carr and around palaeo-Lake Flixton record natural woodland development in the early Holocene and a mosaic of productive wetland environments as the lake progressively filled with sediment. High resolution pollen and microscopic charcoal data show that the lake-edge reedswamp was regularly burned during the Mesolithic occupation. Deciduous forest spread across the Yorkshire region, but fire was an important diversifying factor during the whole of the Mesolithic period in most areas, particularly in the later Mesolithic in the Pennine and North York Moors uplands where concentration of fire-disturbance episodes at higher altitudes may have prevented woodland extending to the summit plateaux. In places repeated disturbance led to environmental degeneration. Detailed reconstruction of the environmental history of the Vale and the Yorkshire region allows Star Carr to be considered within conceptual models of Mesolithic economic strategies, land-use and settlement patterns.