114Late Stone Age Huntersits total absence from Star Carr, though horses were hunted in the area during the Lateglacial, as we saw at Flixton Site 2 (chapter 6). The excavators at Star Carr found nearly 17,000 flint artefacts, of which about 14 per cent were either retouched or utilized in some way. This is a high proportion, but Clark acknowledged that the total does not include small spalls, and the original proportion of worked and utilized pieces must have been smaller. The 446 scrapers form the most common type of implement, but a third of these had first been used as cores and such recycling hints at economy in the use of flint, which was nevertheless available locally. Fifty-four were broken, indicating heavy use. There were 114 awls, some of which, along with the scrapers, have been shown by microwear studies to have been used for processing hides, while the 336 burins may be associated with bone and antler working, for which there is abundant independent evidence. Hunting gear was represented by 248 microliths. These almost certainly served as the tips and barbs of arrows and one retained traces of the resin which had held it in the shaft. The microliths are typical of a so-called early Mesolithic broad-blade assemblage, 126 being obliquely blunted points (fig. 7.2). The assemblage also included seven heavy duty tools referred to as axes or adzes, which must have been used in the creation of the clearing by the lakeside in which the hunters set up camp. Although there is abundant evidence for flint working, one of the main activities at Star Carr was the manufacture of barbed points of antler, nearly 200 of which were found. The first stage in this process was the removal of splinters from red deer antler beams with a burin, by means of the groove-and-splinter technique (fig. 6.3a). A number of unworked splinters was found, but study of the discarded beams shows that at least 360 splinters were removed. Some were over 300 mm long and it must often have been possible to fashion two points from a single splinter. The finished points were very varied but Clark defined a number of types distinguished by the number and spacing of the barbs, and the size of the tang (fig. 7.3). Many were found broken and had been discarded. Some of the smaller ones may have been mounted at the ends of arrow shafts and there is evidence that such points were used in hunting terrestrial game (cf. the Poulton elk, chapter 6). The larger specimens are more likely to have been used as fish spears, either singly or mounted in pairs as leisters. One example with a perforation near the base was presumably a harpoon. Objects which have attracted a good deal of comment are a series of red deer antler frontlets, each consisting of part of the skull with the antlers still attached. In each case the antlers have been greatly reduced in such a fashion as to lessen their weight but maintain their profile. The portions of skull have also been thinned and the better preserved examples exhibit pairs of artificially created holes (fig. 7.4). It is assumed that these antler frontlets were intended to be worn, and debate revolves around whether this was as part of a ritual activity or, more mundanely, a disguise used in
