We have all been involved with a range of other projects, so at last its good to get a few dates in the diary for some more research for this project.
On Monday 8th February we will have the opportunity to have a look around the laboratory in the Department of Archaeology, University of York. We will be able to have a close look at the material that Nicky Milner has excavated at the Star Carr Mesolithic site.
We are also going to get an opportunity to work with and interview Andrew Morrison (Keeper of Archaeology, Yorkshire Museum) Nicky Milner (lecturer at the Department of Archaeology … damn I want to meet Ray Mears too) and James the flint-knapper. This will happen on the 5th and 6th March.
A third element of the research for this project will be a walk through the landscape from Star Carr to the coast. Why? Well, the archaeological evidence from Star Carr appears to establish a link between the Star Carr site and the coast. The landscape today between Star Carr and the coast is very different from the Mesolithic landscape; the sea is also a lot closer to Star Carr than it was 10000 years ago. However, we feel that a walk will provoke debate and reflection on what it means to pass through the same localities as the Mesolithic inhabitants but with very different backgrounds, experiences and cultural understanding.
These three pieces of work have arisen from a lot of thinking, reflection and discussion that we four artists have had over the last two months. I have reflected on what is an archive in my last post to this blog. We have been thinking through what the Mesolithic means … it is after all one of the least well known of all archaeological periods. As Sellars and Yeatman wrote in 1931:
The first date in English History is 55 B.C. in which year Julius Caesar (the memorable Roman Emperor) landed, like all other successful invaders of these islands, at Thanet.
And the Mesolithic ends some 5000 years before Julius Caesar became the memorable Roman Emperor.
But i thnk I will leave that discussion until the next post.
