| Title | 11,000-Year-Old Housekeeping: New Study Reveals That Hunter-Gatherer Homes Were Well Organised | |
| Date | Tuesday July 30 2024, @12:24PM | |
| Author | hubie | |
| Topic | ||
| from the love-makes-a-cone-a-home dept. | ||
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Archaeological findings at the renowned Mesolithic site of Star Carr in North Yorkshire suggest that hunter-gatherers maintained an ordered living space by designating specific ‘zones’ for various domestic activities.
The research team from the University of York and the University of Newcastle looked at microscopic evidence from the use of stone tools found inside three structures – potentially cone-like in shape or domed – dating to over 11,000 years ago at the Star Carr site.
They found that there was a range of activities that were likely to have taken place inside the ‘home’, including wood, bone, antler, plant, hide, meat, and fish-related work. The researchers then plotted out spatial patterns for these activities to pinpoint where within the dwelling these activities might have occurred.
Dr Jess Bates, from the University of York’s Department of Archaeology, said: “We found that there were distinct areas for different types of activity, so the messy activity involving butchery, for example, was done in what appears to be a designated space, and separate to the ‘cleaner’ tasks such as crafting bone and wooden objects, tools or jewelry.
“This was surprising as hunter-gatherers are known for being very mobile, as they would have to travel out to find food, and yet they have a very organized approach to creating not just a house but a sense of home.
[...] Star Carr provides the earliest known evidence of British dwellings and some of the earliest forms of architecture. One of the structures found was believed to be shaped like a cone and was constructed out of wood from felled trees, as well as coverings possibly made from plants, like reeds, or animal hides. There is still very little known about why hunter-gatherers would build such structures and continued to throughout the Mesolithic period.
Dr. Bates said: “Not only do we now know that hunter-gatherers were constructing these dwellings, but they had a shared group understanding of how to organize tasks within them.
“In modern society, we are very attached to our homes both physically and emotionally, but in the deep past communities were highly mobile so it is fascinating to see that despite this there is still this concept of keeping an orderly home space.
Reference: “Spatial organisation within the earliest evidence of post-built structures in Britain” by Jessica Bates, Nicky Milner, Chantal Conneller and Aimée Little, 15 July 2024, PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306908
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