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Low Hauxley: The Earliest People
The end of the last Ice Age occurred around 12,000 years ago and marks the beginning of the Mesolithic period
(c.8000-3000BC). For most of this time, no humans lived in north Britain, but from time to time temperatures became
a little warmer for a few thousand years and people from further south in Europe came to this country. These people
were following herds of large animals like mammoths, rhinos and reindeer.
Mesolithic people were hunters and gatherers often travelling along the coast and river valleys looking for suitable
hunting territory. Hunting was not restricted to the land; the sea provided a wide range of marine life from
shellfish to shallow water fish.
People probably moved around seasonally searching the landscape for suitable hunting grounds and places where food
could be gathered, revisiting the same temporary camps at different times of the year. Further up the Northumberland
coast, at Howick, archaeologists have found the remains of a Mesolithic round house. Perhaps it was occupied
seasonally?
No such houses have been found at Low Hauxley; instead our evidence comes from flints found scattered across the
old ground surface below the prehistoric burials. Flint does not occur naturally in this area, and they were
probably left here between six and four thousand years ago.
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