To Star Carr

Fair Star Carr, we weep to see

You fade away so soon:

As yet the archaeologists,

Have not unearthed your boon.

Stay, stay

Until the field seasons

Have run

Unto their final year;

And having found your secrets, we

Will leave you with good cheer.

We have five years to study you,

Three seasons yet to dig               

The dryland and the lake,

Find bone points, and antler picks.

We’ll try

Before the land acidifies,

To take

Soil samples, pollen cores;

So many Mesolithic clues

Beside the relict shores.  

We started planning the geoarchaeological aspects of the new Star Carr excavations this afternoon. The latest round of research at the site begins this year with Nicky Milner's 5 year ERC project. It looks like it will be quite challenging from a microarchaeology perspective, not least because of the peaty sediments which are notoriously difficult to thin section! But I do like a challenge. My involvement will begin properly from August when Feeding Stonehenge comes to an end, and I start working simultaneously on the Ecology of Crusading and Star Carr. From a methodological perspective I'm very excited to be working on such a diverse range of sites, which will provide excellent comparative material for investigating microscale taphonomic processes and preservation. In other news, I'm off to Seattle on friday for a month as a visiting fellow at the University of Washington. Be prepared for many updates about microscopes and coffee.