YORK, ENGLAND—An international team of archaeologists led by Aimée Little of the University of York recreated shamanic headdresses like the ones unearthed at Star Carr, an Early Mesolithic site in North Yorkshire, with ancient tools. But first, they examined the headdresses with 3-D laser scanning to analyze the cut marks made in the red deer crania. They think the first step in producing the headwear involved packing the skull with clay and baking it in embers to remove the skin and make the bone easier to work. Then some of the antler may have been removed to make the headdress lighter. Those antler pieces could then have been used to make barbed points for hunting and fishing. It’s also possible that the antler blanks were removed after the headdress had been worn as a way to recycle them. “This is the only site in Britain where they are found, and there are only a few other headdresses known from Germany. This work into how they might have been made has given us an important glimpse into what life was like 11,000 years ago,” Star Carr excavation co-leader Nicky Milner said in a UPI report on the project. To read about another discovery at Star Carr, go to "Mesolithic Markings."
