ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the changing fortunes of Star Carr within archaeology and its post-excavation history, and discuss some of the reasons for the site's continuing significance. The Early Mesolithic hunter-gatherer site of Star Carr, in the Vale of Pickering, North Yorkshire, ranks with Stonehenge as one of the best known archaeological sites in Britain. The archaeological site of Star Carr is situated at the western end of a former lake known erroneously in much of the archaeological literature as 'Lake Pickering', and more correctly as 'palaeo-Lake Flixton'. Since its initial excavation, this 'site' has occupied a key position in studies of the Early Mesolithic of Britain and more generally northern Europe. Star Carr has also been the subject of a series of restudies, which have involved reconsideration of the original interpretations, re-examination of some of the faunal and artefactual material recovered and, most recently, renewed archaeological and environmental investigations of the site and its setting.
