The Coolest Archaeological Site in the World: Interview with Professor Chantal Conneller on Star Carr and the Mesolithic

Tides of History

Wondery / Patrick Wyman

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2022

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Star Carr, located in the Yorkshire region of northern England, is one of the world's richest archaeological sites, a waterlogged window onto the European Mesolithic more than 11,000 years ago. Professor Chantal Conneller spent more than a decade excavating at Star Carr, and she joins me to talk about this enigmatic and little-known but incredibly fascinating period of human history.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everybody from Wundery, welcome to another episode of Tides of History.
0:12.7	I'm Patrick Weiman, thanks for joining me.
0:15.2	The mesolithic of Europe is often overlooked in popular accounts of prehistory.
0:19.2	The preceding paleolithic has cool rock art and mammoths and whatnot.
0:22.8	The succeeding neolithic seems to lead obviously into a more familiar world of farming, social
0:26.9	complexity and eventually cities and states.
0:29.5	But far from being a brief transitional phase, the mesolithic lasted for thousands and
0:33.3	thousands of years over a huge swath of territory.
0:36.2	Instead of skipping it over because we're more concerned about what happened on either
0:39.0	side, it would behooves us to understand such a durable and long lasting set of cultures
0:43.0	a little better.
0:44.0	Today's guest is one of the world's leading experts on the mesolithic of Europe.
0:48.0	Shantal Connallair is professor of early prehistory at Newcastle University and for more
0:52.0	than a decade she was co-director of excavations at StarCars, one of the very coolest
0:56.8	archaeological sites ever found.
0:59.2	She's currently co-director of the Ice Age Island project overseeing excavations of paleolithic,
1:04.0	mesolithic and neolithic sites on Jersey.
1:06.6	Professor Connallair's most recent book is The Mesolithic in Britain.
1:09.8	Prior to that, she co-edited a massive two volume compilation of recent work at StarCars
1:14.2	and has also authored a staggering number of other books and articles.
1:18.4	Professor Connallair, thank you so much for joining me.
1:20.4	Oh, thank you very much for your fighting, Ray.
	...

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