Profile
Photos
Comments
Found: Britain's oldest house at 10,500 years old is uncovered by archaeologists
By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 5:43 PM on 10th August 2010
It is cramped, draughty and unlikely to win any design awards.
But according to archaeologists, this wooden hut is one of the most important buildings ever created in Britain.
The newly discovered circular structure is the UK's oldest known home.
Pictures from the dig where archaeologists believe that one of the first houses in Britain may have been buried
An 11,000-year-old birch tree extends into what would have been the lake at the ancient site near Scarborough
STONE AGE BRITAIN
The Stone Age builders who created Britain's earliest known house were nomads - tribes who wandered northern Europe following deer, wild cattle and elk.
Although Britain had been visited by hunter-gatherers for hundreds of thousands of years, it was only at the end of the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago - when the glaciers finally retreated from Scotland - that the country became permanently occupied.
At the time the sea level was hundreds of feet lower than it is today and Britain was connected to mainland Europe by a bridge of marshy, low lying land.
The discovery of red deer skulls used as masks near the site - and the fact that it was used for such a long period of time - raises the possibility that it was some kind of temple, used for strange, long forgotten rituals.
The creators of the hut wore animal skins and furs, stitched together with crude thread. The furs came from fox, beavers and pine-martins, while the skins were made from the hides of deer and wild cattle.
They were beginning to experiment with woven fabrics and had mastered basket weaving from reeds.
Thousands of miles away, in the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia, the earliest farmers were learning how to sow seeds and domesticate animals in a discovery that would transform the world - and herald the age of villages, writing and civilisation.
But in northern Europe, the hunter-gathering way of life that had served prehistoric man for millennia remained unchallenged
Built more than 6,000 years before Stonehenge, it provided shelter from the icy winds and storms that battered the nomadic hunters roaming Britain at the end of the last Ice Age.
Remains of the 11 ft wide building were discovered near Scarborough in North Yorkshire and have been dated to at least 8,500BC.
It stood next to an ancient lake and close to the remains of a wooden timber quay side.
A large tree trunk has also been uncovered by the team. Despite being 11,000 years old it is well preserved with its bark still intact.
The house predates what was previously Britain's oldest known dwelling at Howick, Northumberland, by at least 500 years.
The centre of the structure had been hollowed out and filled with organic material. The researchers believe the floor was once carpeted with a layer of reeds, moss or grasses. The team believe there may once have been a fireplace.
None of the wood used to make the building has survived. Instead, archaeologists found the tell-tale signs of 18 timber posts, arranged in a circle.
Dr Chantal Conneller and Barry Taylor from The University of Manchester with Dr Nicky Milner from the University of York have been working at Star Carr since 2004.
Dr Conneller said it was used for at least 200 to 500 years - and may have been abandoned for long stretches.
Universities and Science Minister, David Willetts, said: 'This exciting discovery marries world-class research with the lives of our ancestors.
'It brings out the similarities and differences between modern life and the ancient past in a fascinating way, and will change our perceptions for ever. I congratulate the research team and look forward to their future discoveries.'
According to the team, they migrated from an area now under the North Sea, hunting animals including deer, wild boar, elk and enormous wild cattle known as auroch.
Though they did not cultivate the land, the inhabitants did burn part of the landscape to encourage animals to eat shoots and they also kept domesticated dogs.
Dr Milner said: 'This is a sensational discovery and tells us so much about the people who lived at this time.
'From this excavation, we gain a vivid picture of how these people lived. For example, it looks like the house may have been rebuilt at various stages.
It is also likely there was more than one house and lots of people lived here.
'The platform is made of hewn and split timbers; the earliest evidence of this type of carpentry in Europe. And the artefacts of antler, particularly the antler head-dresses, are intriguing as they suggest ritual activities.'
Dr Conneller said: 'This changes our ideas of the lives of the first settlers to move back into Britain after the end of the last Ice Age.
'We used to think they moved around a lot and left little evidence. Now we know they built large structures and were very attached to particular places in the landscape.'
The ancient Star Carr site is located not far from the Yorkshire town of Scarborough
Archaeologists have been excavating at the Mesolithic site Star Carr since 2003
Barry Taylor added: 'The ancient lake is a hugely important archaeological landscape many miles across.
'To an inexperienced eye, the area looks unremarkable - just a series of little rises in the landscape.
'But using special techniques I have been able to reconstruct the landscape as it was then.
'The peaty nature of the landscape has enabled the preservation of many treasures including the paddle of a boat, the tips of arrows and red deer skull tops which were worn as masks.
'But the peat is drying out, so it's a race against time to continue the work before the archaeological finds decay.'
A depiction of a stone-age house in Ireland. The original building at Star Carr would have looked very similar to this, with thatched roof and circular shape
The scientists have found a timber platform which would have supported the house
Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1301837/Found-Britains-oldest-house-10-500-years-old.html#ixzz0wE5L2Nd4
