A Disappearing Sea
Until about 8000 BC Britain was joined to the continent by a large open marshy area. As the sea level rose the whole area became flooded to form the shallow expanse now known as the North Sea. The coastal areas of this vast sea were attractive areas for people to exploit. There were fish in the sea and the estuaries, wildfowl and birds along the coast, and game inland.
It was easy to travel along the wide, sandy beaches which are still a feature of this area. In the summer there was food in the inland hills, but in the short, dark days of a cold winter the coastal area - the littoral - provided shelter and food.
Life in the Mesolithic
The people of this period, the Middle Stone Age or Mesolithic, used flint knives and tools they made from nodules left in the clayey soil deposited by the retreating glaciers over two thousand years before. These could be picked up on the seashore. A concentration of flints at the top of a small cliff near Howick in Northumberland alerted archaeologists to a possible settlement site.
A Ten Thousand Year Old House
Excavation of the site revealed stains in the sandy soil indicating the rotted post holes of a circular structure. These clearly showed the outline of a round house that had three successive structural phases or reconstructions.
Radiocarbon dates suggest the house was used over a 150 year period. Over 13,000 fragments of worked flint were discovered amongst the excavated soil.
Hearth Pits
A series of hearth pits in the centre of the house preserved the charred remains of meals. There were over a million hazelnut shells, and the bones of fox, dog, wild pig, birds and seals. No doubt the inhabitants also ate fish, but fish bones do not survive as well as those of birds or mammals.
The House reconstructed
What did the house look like? Based on the evidence from the excavation a house was reconstructed to the same size, a diameter of 6 metres, and in the same place. The floor was slightly sunken into the sandy soil. The building is circular, with a pitched roof leading to a point like a teepee. A ring of internal supports keeps the roof up. The original roof may have been covered in thatch, turf, bark or even hide. The reconstruction used a thatched roof.
The house was found to be spacious and warm, and big enough for eight people to live in.
Red Ochre
The excavators discovered many pieces of red ochre, a form of haemetite prized by people in ancient times who used it as a medicine or as a pigment for paint. The mesolithic people of Howick may have used it to paint their bodies as they sat around the hearth in winter eating hazelnuts gathered earlier in the year.
Sources
Clive Waddington and Dave Passmore (2004) Ancient Northumberland Country Store
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