Star Carr: Life after the Ice

Visitors can explore what human life was like 11,000 years ago, a few hundred years after the last Ice Age, through an exciting and interactive new exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum, which brings together wonderful artefacts from one the most famous Mesolithic sites in the world.

Star Carr, a site of international archaeological importance, is sometimes referred to as the ‘Stonehenge of the Mesolithic’. The incredible range of finds uncovered over recent decades has deepened our understanding of how people lived and the landscape they inhabited during the Mesolithic period (Middle Stone Age). Buried beneath layers of peat, the site in North Yorkshire provides evidence of the earliest houses, a place where hunter-gatherers settled and lived by what was once a large lake in a settlement which existed at a time when Britain was still connected to Europe.

‘Star Carr: Life after the ice’ showcases these artefacts to explore how prehistoric communities settled, created, cooked and worshipped and tells us about the landscape they lived in. On display will be objects from the Yorkshire Museum Collection, including iconic antler headdresses, a unique, decorated stone pendant, the world’s oldest complete hunting bow and the earliest evidence of carpentry from Europe.