8500-4000 BC Mesolithic

South-west England has some of the best evidence in the British Isles for how Mesolithic people treated their dead. In Somerset, in addition to the cemetery at Aveline’s Hole, the caves at Totty Pot and Gough’s Cave were also used as burial grounds.

Less is known about people’s everyday lives, as few sites in the area have been excavated. However, the distribution of sites shows that people used both coastal areas, such as at Westward Ho! in Devon, and upland locations.

Sites are known from the granite uplands of Bodmin Moor, Dartmoor and Hensbarrow Downs near St Austell. Some of these may have been hunting sites, but the site at Dozmary Pool on Bodmin Moor probably had a different use. The large number of scraping tools suggests that the site was a special camp for preparing animal hides. The stone used on these upland sites to make the tools was obtained on or near the coasts, showing that the people who lived in the uplands also spent part of the year on the coast.