Star Carr Frontlets at Yorkshire Museum

Star Carr Frontlets

During the 1950’s archaeologists discovered 21 red deer headdresses during excavations at the Star Carr site in North Yorkshire. Further work in 2015 revealed even more of these rare objects, making Star Carr one of the most important Mesolithic archaeological sites in Europe.

These mysterious headdresses are about 11,000 years old and were created by the Mesolithic people who lived in North Yorkshire at that time. Recent research by the University of York has revealed interesting new findings about the frontlets, reigniting questions of why they were made and what this tells us about the lives of the people during the Early Mesolithic in Yorkshire (9,300-8,500 BC).

Ritual or Disguise?

The frontlets feature in a Spotlight display at the Yorkshire Museum. It is the first time that these newly discovered frontlets have been on display to the public following their recent excavation by the University of York.

The exhibition also features the Star Carr pendant – find out more here.

The Royal Mail Stamp

In January 2017, Royal Mail released of eight stamps featuring some of the most inspiring objects and atmospheric sites of UK prehistory depicting famous iconic sites as well as some of the most exceptional artefacts from around the UK.

The set included the Star Carr headdress found at the mesolithic site at Seamar near Scarborough.

Illustrated by London-based artist Rebecca Strickson, the stamps were designed as overlay illustrations, detailing how people lived and worked at these sites and used the objects.

Please note: The Yorkshire Museum is home to an extensive and varied collection of items and artefacts. Whilst we make every effort to display a broad spectrum of our collections it is not always possible for all our collections to be on display at once.