IT is often said that northerners are a tough breed and now archaeological research at a Stone Age site is offering some proof.

Leading researchers based at the University of York and the Royal Holloway University of London have been examining items found at the 9,000 BC Star Carr site near Scarborough.

They have discovered that the pioneering early people who lived at the end of the last ice age actually carried on with life as usual despite plummeting temperatures.

The researchers found that a dramatic climate event with a sudden drop in average temperatures - severe enough to halt the development of woodland - had no substantial impact on human activity at Star Carr.

The prehistoric community, who persevered through the cold snap that would last more than 100-years, left a plethora of worked wood, animal bones, antler headdresses and flint blades buried in layers of mud as evidence of their continued productivity and endurance.

Simon Blockley, Professor of Quaternary Science at Royal Holloway, said: “It has been argued that abrupt climatic events may have caused a crash in Mesolithic populations in Northern Britain, but our study reveals, that at least in the case of the pioneering colonisers at Star Carr, early communities were able to cope with extreme and persistent climate events.

“We found people were in fact far more affected by smaller, localised changes to their environment - Star Carr was once the site of an extensive lake and people lived around its edge.

“Over time the lake gradually became shallower and boggier, turning into fenland which eventually forced settlers to abandon the area.”

The rich archaeological record at Star Carr gave the researchers the rare opportunity to directly compare the palaeoclimate record with evidence of human activity through time in the same location.

The researchers examined human activity by looking at remains recovered from layers of wetland deposits at the edge of the extensive former lake basin.

They found evidence of houses, large wooden platforms built on the lake edge and large quantities of artefacts and bones preserved in the lake muds.

Pollen, macrofossils and isotopes taken from lake sediment cores allowed the researchers to build a picture of the climate of the area over thousands of years.

The team identified two episodes of extreme cooling which saw average temperatures drop by more than three degrees in the space of a decade.

The first of these events occurred very early after humans began to return to the area after the last ice age.

The evidence indicates that these conditions may have slowed down the progress and activity of a community in the early stages.

However, the second cooling event, which occurred later when the community was more established, appears to have had very little impact.

Professor Nicky Milner, based at the University of York, said: “Perhaps the later, more established community at Star Carr were buffered from the effects of the second extreme cooling event – which is likely to have caused exceptionally harsh winter conditions– by their continued access to a range of resources at the site including red deer.

“We have been working at Star Carr for about 15-years and the site has produced an incredibly rare glimpse into the world of our Mesolithic ancestors who lived at the end of the ice age, about 11,000 years ago.”