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Preliminary Report on Excavations at Star Carr, Seamer, Scarborough, Yorkshire (Second Season, 1950)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

J. G. D. Clark
J. G. D. Clark*
Affiliation:
Dept. of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge
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Extract

The first season's digging at Star Carr, Seamer, was confined to the examination of a single cutting and a lateral extension from this, the whole area amounting to no more than 475 square feet. The second season's work carried out in June and July 1950 was aimed first and foremost at learning more about the character of the brushwood flooring revealed in 1949 and in increasing the range of data bearing on the culture of the mesolithic hunters and on the wild animals on which they subsisted. Cuttings (II and III) were accordingly opened on either side of the original one, but three-foot balks were retained so as to prevent loose peat and water pouring from the original cutting into the new workings (fig. 1). The width of cuttings II and III was maintained at three yards so that the peat overlying the archaeological level could be dumped without harrowing. The new cuttings were started three yards south of datum, in view of what had been learnt in the previous season about the limits within which organic materials survived. Cutting II was extended southward well out into the lake bed, but cutting III was not carried out so far owing to the seepage of water from the lateral extension from the original cutting. The total area examined in cuttings II and III was approximately 747 square feet.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 16 , 1950 , pp. 109 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1950

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References

page 110 note 1 Proc. Prehist. Soc., 1949, pl. VIII.

page 111 note 1 The position of this hearth was indicated on the section of cutting I (Proc. Preh. Soc., 1949, pl. VIII, a). It comprised a rough setting of some 22 small glacial pebbles, interspersed with charcoal.

page 114 note 1 Spalls were ignored in the count.

page 114 note 2 Although recovered from the dump by our member, Mr E. V. Wright, M.B.E., there is no doubt that it came from the archaeological level.

page 114 note 3 Proc. Prehist. Soc., 1949, 57 Google Scholar.

page 116 note 1 Proc. Prehist. Soc., 1949, 61 Google Scholar.

page 116 note 2 Proc. Prehist. Soc., 1949, 60 Google Scholar and pl. XV, 2.

page 119 note 1 The following Cambridge students assisted in the archaeological excavation: Miss F. E. Armstrong and Miss H. H. Richardson (Girton), Mrs S. J. Hallam, Miss M. Munro, Miss A. Paull and Miss G. M. Spence (Newnham), Mr P. S. Gelling (Downing), Mr C. H. Houlder (Jesus), Mr G. Sieveking (King's), Mr J. D. Evans, Mr A. E. Price and Mr M. W. Thompson (Pembroke), Mr R. M. Butler and Mr J. Golson (Peterhouse), Mr D. E. Bennett and Mr K. Jolly (St. John's), and Mr J. C. Baber and Mr J. G. Hurst (Trinity).

In addition we had the help of Miss P. Leake of Oxford and of Mr Thabit Hassan of the London Institute of Archaeology.