A small hazelnut shell, that we throw away in the trash thousands of years ago, may reveal secrets about Stone Age humans.
Learning about early humans is quite tricky as there is no written record. Deductions have to be drawn from even the most insignificant evidence, but every once in awhile, archaeologists find more substantiate evidence to piece together the puzzle of how life before the written word existed.
The remains of a Stone Age hazelnut shell found in New Forest in the United Kingdom suggest early human activity in the area around the time. The archaeologists discovered them around a monument and there were five urns speculated to be from Bronze Age. Two digs at Beaulieu Estate led to these discoveries. According to a report in the BBC, a New Forest National Park Authority (NPA) project archaeologist said Mesolithic period evidence was quite rare.
These discoveries suggest there might have been a prehistoric campsite in the area, they said. The hazelnut shell is a ‘charred remain’ and the archaeologists placed it in the Mesolithic period with the help of radiocarbon dating at 5736 - 5643 BC.
Jon Milward from Bournemouth University Archaeological Research Consultancy is one of the researchers involved in the project. “Archaeological evidence from the Mesolithic period is rare but now and again, we do find flint tools and evidence for these temporary settlement sites,” he said.
A small number of Mesolithic sites close to Beaulieu River are already known. The NPA said this new evidence of the ring ditch monument adds to the knowledge of prehistoric activity in the New Forest significantly. Some believed it was just a burial place, but some maintain it might have been more than that.
The structures similar to this monument, with entrances and open interiors, have been historically sued as meeting places. They have been used to carry out ceremonies and rituals that might have been of importance in the local community.
“There is evidence here of regular modification and an apparent continuity of use over a long time, implying that this monument was perhaps more than a burial place and played a significant role in the community for many generations” said Milward.
The three urns uncovered at Bournemouth University contained cremated human bone.