Star Carr Extension — Seamer Carr & Flixton Island Mesolithic Lakesides (Vale of Pickering)
Seamer Carr Mesolithic lake edge · Flixton School House Farm platform · Star Carr Seamer extension
Early Mesolithic (Maglemosian, 9000–8500 BCE, Preboreal)·British Early Mesolithic (Maglemosian, Star Carr group)·🇬🇧 England, North Yorkshire, Vale of Pickering, Lake Flixton (palaeo-lake), Star Carr–Seamer–Flixton lakeshore, United Kingdom
About
About Star Carr Extension — Seamer Carr & Flixton Island Mesolithic Lakesides (Vale of Pickering)
5 ha of Late Glacial Lake Flixton peat-mire on Vale of Pickering chalk. 5 m) and Europe's earliest carpentry — birch bark cord and split-oak 11-m dugout fragment predating Pesse by 1,500 years. Preserved by Lake Flixton anaerobic basal peat with timber; now drying since 1950s drainage. Defines 'Star Carr landscape' not single site.
Why it mattersRewrites Star Carr as 4-ha lakeside landscape with 350-m brush causeway and 3 houses — earliest British architecture.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Antler frontlet ritual
Theories
- 01PostGLACIAL sedentism debate
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.9000 – 8500 BCE (Early Mesolithic, Maglemosian, Preboreal)
- Period
- Early Mesolithic (Maglemosian, 9000–8500 BCE, Preboreal)
- Culture
- British Early Mesolithic (Maglemosian, Star Carr group)
- Builders
- Maglemosian hunter–gatherers of the Flixton palaeo-lake
- Purpose
- Lakeside camp, causeway access and lake-edge platform with antler frontlet ritual deposit
- Abandoned
- c.8300 BCE (lake infilling)
- Rediscovered
- 1948 J.G.D. Clark; 2004 Milner Seamer extension
- Excavation
- Excavated
-9000
House 1 post holes on birch platform
2004
POSTGLACIAL project Seamer 350-m brush feature
On the ground
Structures & features
54.2200° N · 0.4200° W · 22 m · 2 mapped features
Birch Brush Causeway (350 m)
causeway350-m birch brush bundle causeway pegged over Lake Flixton fen peat
54.2210° N · 0.4210° WAntler Frontlet Deposit (Flixton Island)
deposit20 red-deer antler frontlet deposit on Flixton Island shore platform
54.2190° N · 0.4190° W