Engraved Mesolithic pendant unearthed in the UK :

An 11,000 year old engraved shale pendant discovered by archaeologists during excavations at the Early Mesolithic site at Star Carr in North Yorkshire is unique in the UK, according to new research.

The artwork on the tiny fragile pendant, uncovered by a research team from the Universities of York, Manchester and Chester, is the earliest known Mesolithic art in Britain. Crafted from a single piece of shale, the subtriangular three-millimetre thick artefact measuring 31mm by 35mm contains a series of lines which archaeologists believe may represent a tree, a map, a leaf or even tally marks. Engraved motifs on Mesolithic pendants are extremely rare and no other engraved pendants made of shale are known in Europe. When archaeologists uncovered the pendant last year, the lines on the surface were barely visible. The research team used a range of digital microscopy techniques to generate high resolution images to help determine the style and order of engraving. They also carried out scientific analysis to try to establish if the pendant had been strung or worn and whether pigments had been used to make the lines more prominent. The research, which is part of a five-year project supported by the European Research Council, is published in Internet Archaeology. The research is also supported by Historic England and the Vale of Pickering Research Trust. The pendant is to be showcased to the public for the first time in a display at the Yorkshire Museum in York on 27 February until 5 May. Star Carr is one of a number of archaeological sites around what was the location of a huge lake which covered much of the Vale of Pickering in the Mesolithic era. Researchers discovered the pendant in lake edge deposits. Initially they thought it was natural stone—the perforation was blocked by sediment and the engravings were invisible. It is the first perforated artefact with engraved design discovered at Star Carr though shale beads, a piece of perforated amber and two perforated animal teeth have been recovered from the site previously.

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"One possibility is that the pendant belonged to a shaman—headdresses made out of red deer antlers found nearby in earlier excavations are thought to have been worn by shamans. We can only guess what the engravings mean but engraved amber pendants found in Denmark have been interpreted as amulets used for spiritual personal protection."

If I had saw the pendent on a less known site or blog I might have been tempted to dismiss it at a glance , because it looked somewhat like stuff Klaus Dona put out, and I am not making any connections here but this is the same era of Gobekli Tepe just noting the wavy lines on the pendant as on the monument, but more than likely it's not a thing, middle stone aged folks are proving to be more interesting than I ever thought.

Definitely a caveman artifact.

It's actually an ancient lottery ticket, and they won!!!!!


Cool find!

a reply to: Spider879

That's a fabulous find. Very exciting, and so close to home for me...my Nan lived around Pickering and I spent all my school holidays stomping round there.

I'll be sure to pop round to the Yorkshire Museum and have a proper look.

a reply to: Spider879

I think it's a map.

Look at this! Feel the quality of that, that's craftsmanship
Ehm...all right, two points, ahm...two flats and a packet of gravel.

originally posted by: Kester
a reply to: Spider879

I think it's a map.

Interesting why would you think map.

a reply to: Spider879

Easy to carry securely on a journey and similar but more evolved markings on standing stones and outcrops are thought by some to be maps.

"Some people think that the Cochno Stone is a map showing the other settlements in the Clyde Valley - that's one of the theories. I think it was probably used for lots of things; it was never used for just one thing and over hundreds of years it changed use."

www.bradshawfoundation.com...

a reply to: Kester

Wow , what a beautiful 5000yrs old map I think your thought on the matter is more than reasonable, after all it doesn't look like a tally , but whatever the design was it was much more than decorative.

a reply to: Kester


That's the first thing that came to my mind. I'd bet it's a map as well.

a reply to: Spider879

Isn't it gorgeous? And that it was found near antler head-dresses suggests a shamanic connection, which gives a fascinating insight into life in the Mesolithic area.
Given the effort the team went to to find the inscriptions, I wondered if there were more originally that simply got worn away?

a reply to: Kester

Hi Kester, my money's on a star map for the Cochno stone.

Its a guitar pick. they were giving "rock music" its name.

ba-dump-dump

a reply to: beansidhe

As above, so below.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan



No...just no.

I'm going to scribble lines all outside the box on this.
We've found this "line writing" all across the earlier era's. It's too easy to pander to the idea of uneducated ancestors just scratching a living and grunting at each other.

My personal thoughts have always been that this line writing is a language, similar in type to the runes, maybe mnemonic in nature maybe not, but it's a defined language/set of symbols probably universal at the time by different cultures who traded, did business among all the tribes at that time.

Since it's found in all cultures, it'd be a mistake to try to isolate it and tag it only to one. By in all cultures I am referencing the circumpolar and north atlantic. Trade drove the economy at the time so it would stand to reason they would need a common communication method.

Just my thoughts.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

I agree definitely a pick! And why not? Wood and sea lion strings wouldn't have survived.
I'll go and research that...