6,000 years older than Stonehenge: Britain’s oldest house found to be 11,500 years old

Small and bulky, it is unlikely to win an architecture award. But archaeologists say the wooden hut is one of the most important buildings ever designed in Britain.

Our artists were impressed that the newly discovered circular structure is the oldest known home in the country. Built more than 6,000 years before Stonehenge, it served as a haven from the freezing winds and storms that threatened nomadic hunters across Britain at the end of the last Ice Age.

The remains of an 11-foot-wide building found near Scarborough, North Yorkshire, date to at least 8,500 BC. It’s dated. It stood near the ruins of a wooden wharf, by an old lake.

Dr. Chantal Connerer of the University of Manchester said it is 500 to 1,000 years older than the previous record holder, the building found in Howick, Northumberland.

“This is changing our perception of what life was like for the first settlers back in England after the end of the last Ice Age,” she said.

“Now we know they were building large structures and were very concentrated in certain parts of the landscape. Okay.”

The building was built, nothing remains. Instead, archaeologists found telltale signs of 18 wooden columns arranged in a circle. The core of the structure was hollowed out and filled with organic material.

Researchers believe that the floor was once covered with layers of reeds, moss, and grass, and that there may have been a fireplace there. Dr. Connerer said the hut has been in use for at least 200 to 500 years and may have been abandoned for long periods of time.

“We don’t know much about it, nor what it was used for,” she said. “It could have been a condominium, although it only accommodates three or four people. Evidence of ceremonies at the site suggests that this may have been a ceremonial structure of some kind.”

Previous archaeological excavations near the hut have unearthed headgear made from deer skulls, as well as remains of flint, boat paddles and antler. Tools, hooks, beads.

Researchers also found a large wooden platform next to an ancient and long-dead lake in Star Carr. It was made by splitting and cutting wood.

This platform may have been a quay and is the earliest evidence of carpentry in Europe. At that time, England was connected with the rest of Europe. The hut’s inhabitants were nomads who migrated from what is now the North Sea floor to hunt deer, wild boar, elk and wild cattle.

Dr. Nicky Milner of York University said, “This is a sensational find and tells us a lot about the people who were alive at the time.” It gives us a vivid picture of what it was like to be alive.” It looks as if the house has been rebuilt in different stages.

“There are several houses here and it is possible that many people lived here. Also the horn artefacts, particularly the horn headdresses, are of interest as indications of ritual activity.”

Britain has been around for hundreds of thousands of years, but hunter-gatherers have visited for years and Scotland was permanently occupied only when the glaciers receded at the end of the Last Ice Age. bottom.

Thousands of miles away, in the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia, the first farmers sowed seeds and learned how to domesticate animals. This was a world-changing discovery, ushering in an era of villages, letters and civilizations.

In Northern Europe, however, the hunter-gatherer lifestyle that had served prehistoric humans for thousands of years remained steadfast.