Star Carr Archives Project

Abstract

The main emphasis of this study has been the location of the material excavated by Clark, 1949-1951 because that constitutes the majority of the archive. However, an attempt has also been made to locate the archives generated by John Moore (1948 and 1951) and those generated by the Vale of Pickering Research Trust (1985 and 1989), published in Mellars and Dark (1998). At the start of this project, a group email was distributed to UK museums and archival institutions via the Society of Museum Archaeologists, which acts as a central node in curatorial networks. Additionally, a list of fifty-five small, local museums was contacted following web-based research. Museum visits proceeded over the autumn of 2011, spring of 2012 and autumn of 2012, conducted by Nicky Milner (The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge), Hayley Saul (The Natural History Museum, The Rotunda Museum Scarborough, Whitby Museum, The Yorkshire Museum), Ben Elliot and Pat Hadley (The British Museum). A spreadsheet was used for recording artefacts. Clark's original artefact recording system inspired the design of the spreadsheet, since most researchers will approach the Clark archive through acquaintance with the (1954) monograph