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A Preliminary Report on Excavations at Star Carr, Seamer, Scarborough, Yorkshire, 1949

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

J. G. D. Clark ,
H. Godwin ,
F. C. Fraser  and
J. E. King
J. G. D. Clark
Affiliation:
Dept. of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge
H. Godwin
Affiliation:
Univ. Sub-dept., of Quaternary Research, Cambridge
F. C. Fraser
Affiliation:
British Museum (Natural History)
J. E. King
Affiliation:
British Museum (Natural History)
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Extract

The object of the excavations described in this preliminary report was to recover evidence of:

(a) the more perishable elements in the material culture of a Maglemosian community,

(b) the fauna on which this community largely subsisted and

(c) the vegetation which formed the ecological setting of man and beast alike.

The best way of appreciating the need for such an investigation and of judging the measure of success attained in this first season is to consider how knowledge of the Maglemosian culture in Britain grew up between the two world wars. There appear to have been two main clues, namely single finds of barbed bone points, commonly, though probably wrongly, referred to in the early literature as ‘harpoons,’ and flint industries of a type associated with analogous points on Maglemosian sites in the Baltic area.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 15 , 1949 , pp. 52 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1949

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References

page 52 note 1 Sarauw, G. F. L., ‘En Stenalders Boplads i Maglemose ved Mullerup, Sammenholdt med Beslaegtede Fund’, Aarbøger, 1903, 148–315Google Scholar.

page 52 note 2 To judge from a reference of Armstrong, 's (Man, 1922,Google Scholar no. 75), the Abbé first identified the Holderness ‘harpoons’ publicly as Maglemosian in the course of the Munro Lectures given by him at Edinburgh in February, 1921, and they were referred to in general terms as Maglemosian in the first edition of Mr M. C. Burkitt's Prehistory published in Cambridge that same year. I can find no reference to the Abbé Breuil's Munro Lectures ever having been published as such.

page 53 note 1 ‘Observations on the Pre-Neolithic Industries of Scotland’, P.S.A.S. LVI, 261–81Google Scholar. See pp. 280–1.

page 53 note 2 Armstrong, A. L., ‘The Maglemose Remains of Holderness and their Baltic Counterparts’, P.P.S.E.A. IV (1923), 57–70Google Scholar; see also Man, 1922, no. 75 and 1923, nos. 31 and 83.

page 53 note 3 e.g. Burkitt, M. C. in P.P.S.E.A. V (1925), 32Google Scholar and Childe, V. G. in J.R.A.I. LXI (1931), 325–48Google Scholar, map.

page 53 note 4 Johansen, K. Friis, ‘Une Station du Plus Ancien Age de la Pierre dans le Tourbière de Svaerdborg’, Mém. d. Antiqu. du Nord, 1918–1919, 241–359Google Scholar.

page 53 note 5 Peake, Harold and Crawford, O. G. S., ‘A Flint Factory at Thatcham, Berks.’, P.P.S.E.A. III (1922), 499–514Google Scholar. See especially pp. 510–13.

page 53 note 6 Sainty, J. E., ‘A Flaking Site on Kelling Heath, Norfolk’, P.P.S.E.A. IV (1924), 165–75Google Scholar; also P.P.S.E.A. V (1925), 56–61Google Scholar and (1927), 283–7.

page 53 note 7 First published by Westerby, E., ‘Den mesolitiske Tid i Norden’, Ymer, 1931, 41–58Google Scholar. Especially pp. 45–6.

page 53 note 8 The Mesolithic Age in Britain. Cambridge, 1932Google Scholar.

page 53 note 9 e.g. Thatcham, Kelling, Colne Valley, Hullbridge, Uxbridge, etc.

page 53 note 10 A. L. Armstrong, op. cit., 67 f.

page 54 note 1 P.P.S.E.A. VII (1932), 131–2Google Scholar.

page 54 note 2 Antiquity, 1933, 36–48Google Scholar.

page 54 note 3 Warren, S. Hazzledine, Clark, J. G. D., H. and Godwin, M. E. and Macfadyen, W. A., ‘An Early Mesolithic Site at Broxbourne Sealed under Boreal Peat’, J.R.A.I. LXIV (1934), 101–28Google Scholar.

page 54 note 4 The Committee, formed with the object of furthering cooperation between archaeologists and natural historians (see P.P.S.E.A. VII (1932), 133)Google Scholar, held its first meeting at Cambridge on June 7th, 1932. Excavations began that summer at Plantation Farm, Shippea Hill, the first of a series at different sites, by which (between 1932–40) the main phases of human settlement from the late mesolithic to the late bronze age were fixed in the Post-glacial sequence of the southern fenland.

page 54 note 5 A Survey and Policy of Field Research in the Archaeology of Great Britain. Council for British Archaeology, London, 1948, pp. 83–4Google Scholar.

page 55 note 1 See p. 63 n.

page 57 note 1 Similar pebbles, smeared with an analogous substance, have been found on neolithic sites in Switzerland and Liechtenstein and Prof. E. Vogt has been able to show that these were used in the preparation of birch pitch. While this report was in press Professor Vogt has kindly examined the larger pebble. He reports that the black substance is too burnt to make an identification possible and further that the pebble lacks the traces of great heat at the end, which characterise the Swiss pebbles used in the preparation of birch-pitch. The specimens bevelled at one end may be compared with objects from the Obanian midden of Caisteal-nan-Gillean, Oronsay (c.f. Movius, H. J., The Irish Stone Age, fig. 36. Cambridge, 1942)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 60 note 1 Rust, A., Die Alt- und Mittelsteinzeitlichen Funde von Stellmoor. Neumünster, 1943. S. 169Google Scholar, taf. 49.

page 60 note 2 Rust, A., Das altsteinzeitliche Rentierjägerlager Meiendorf. Neumünster, 1937, S. 92Google Scholar f. Only very rarely did the splinter extend below the brow tine (S. 97, taf. 35, 35A).

page 60 note 3 ibid., S. 93 f., taf. 31, 32.

page 60 note 4 Compare the situation at the settlement of Lammasmägi, near Kunda, where no less than 89 per cent of the barbed points were represented only by their tangs. Indreko, R., Die Mittlere Steinzeit in Estland, 225–6. Stockholm, 1948Google Scholar.

page 61 note 1 Dr T. Paterson has strongly supported this interpretation in conversation, based on his experience of Eskimo practice.

page 61 note 2 According to Indreko, op. cit., 223, the longest of those from Kunda measured 28.4 cm.

page 62 note 1 What was almost certainly an unfinished adze, similarly made from the base of an antler and part of the frontal bone of an elk, was found at Svaerdborg (Friis Johansen, 1918–9, 298-9 and fig. 41). Axes of red deer antler with the cutting edge formed from the frontal bone are known from Denmark, but they are rare (Danske Oldsager, I, Aeldre Stenalder, no. 127. Copenhagen, 1948Google Scholar)

page 62 note 2 c.f. Sarauw, op. cit., 241 f.; Friis Johansen, op. cit., 320 f. etc.

page 62 note 3 Lower extremities of metacarpal and metatarsal bones of aurochs were also found at Svaerdborg. In some, though not in all, cases they had been worn smooth, showing that they had been used as rubbers, probably for leather, before being cut up to provide material for implements (see Friis Johansen, op. cit., 338 and figs. 69, 70). Indreko, op. cit. abb. 46, 4, shows the sawn off articular end of a long bone from Kunda.

page 63 note 1 A Rust, 1937, 106 f.

page 63 note 2 G. F. L. Sarauw, op. cit., 191.

page 63 note 3 Amber was already used sparingly by the Hamburgians (A. Rust, 1937, 109). It was also employed, though still rarely, by the Maglemosians of Denmark; neither Mullerup nor Holmegaard yielded specimens, but a perforated bead or pendant came from Svaerdborg (Broholm, H. C., ‘Les Trouvailles de Holmegaard et de Svaerdborg’, Mém. d. Antiqu. du Nord, 1926–1931, 116Google Scholar, fig. 66).

page 63 note * A grant of £50 was made available on the recommendation of the Board of Archaeology and Anthropology to make provision for practical field training for students. The following took part in the work: Miss J. Allison, Miss J. Fereday and Mrs S. J. Hallam (Newnham), Mr R. M. Butler (Peterhouse), Mr C. H. Houlder (Jesus), Mr J. G. Hurst (Trinity), Mr A. E. Price and Mr M. W. Thompson (Pembroke), Mr Gale Sieveking (King's) and Mr W. R. Staton (Clare).

page 65 note * This strip was only 2·4 instead of the usual 3 feet long. The graph showing the density of flakes and burins (Pl. VIII, lower) has been adjusted accordingly.

page 65 note † In addition, the following flints were obtained from O/P (21–22): 60 flakes, 3 cores, 2 core-dressings, 7 used or trimmed flakes, 2 scrapers, 4 burins and 1 microlith. Since this area had to be used as a sump, conditions were far from ideal and it is likely that a smaller proportion of the available material was collected than in the main section.