There are some places so rich in archaeological remains and so cherished is their history that, in my run of county reviews, I have been nervous to tread there. One such location, Yorkshire, is the focus of this issue and the next – though two columns seem the least possible space needed to do justice to an incredible archaeological story. I will take a chronological approach, featuring all of the historic counties: North Yorkshire, including the Dales and Moors; the East Riding, including the Humber Estuary and Wolds; and South and West Yorkshire.
Before I begin, let me flag some multi-period reviews that you may wish to start with. For example, CA 98 and 226 (October 1985 and January 2009) visited the North York Moors in two very different moods: first, as part of a long-term research project that won the Pitt Rivers Award at the 1984 British Archaeological Awards and, second, following a disastrous series of fires that ravaged 2.5km2 of Fylingdales Moor in 2003. From the uplands to the lowlands, CA 172 (February 2001) explored the Humber wetlands, an area rich in prehistoric archaeology, including the late Iron Age Hasholme Boat (CA 99, February 1986) and the Bronze Age Ferriby Boats (CA 191, April 2004). Finally, the wonderful review of the archaeology of Yorkshire’s woodlands in CA 336 (March 2018) is essential reading.
Star of the Show
The prehistoric star of the show in Yorkshire can only ever be one site: Star Carr, near Scarborough, arguably the most important Mesolithic site currently known in Britain. The site was discovered in the late 1940s and made famous by Grahame Clark’s work and writing, but it was renewed fieldwork by a joint team from the universities of York, Manchester, and Chester in the early 2000s that transformed our understanding. CA’s first report came in issue 248 (November 2010), when the oldest dwelling yet found in Britain (dating to between 9200 and 8500 BC) was identified. Then came the news – long overdue – in CA 264 (March 2012) that the site had been scheduled on the basis of this new evidence; the magazine returned in issue 282 (September 2013) when Chris Catling reviewed the findings of these works in association with the excavators’ new book Star Carr: life in Britain after the Ice Age. The most recent update came in CA 349 (April 2019), when the full publication of the previous decade’s work took place. For those who are interested, these publications are – unusually, and in a welcome change from common academic practice – available in full for free online: see Milner, Conneller, and Taylor (2018) Star Carr at https://doi.org/10.22599/book1 and https://doi.org/10.22599/book2.
