Listen to the sounds of the environment as you read on…
Travel back 8,000 years. You are standing on a raised area by the river in a wet, boggy valley. Much of the landscape is covered by woodland, but this spot is more open with some scattered trees. Steam rises from thermal springs in the east. The air is filled with the sounds of buzzing insects.
A path winds its way alongside the river here, worn over time by many pairs of feet. The people who lived in this landscape moved around a lot, following animals, plants, and the rhythms of the seasons. The tools they dropped give us clues about their movement. The microlith below was found in the uplands of Kinder Scout.
People had great knowledge about the landscape and the wild resources that it offered up. Berries, seeds and roots were gathered at different times of the year. Today much of this knowledge has been lost.
A gentle breeze carries the smell of smoke into the air. But what’s the cause? Press on to find out.
Soil samples taken during the 1980s have helped us imagine what the environment was like here during the Mesolithic period, 10,000-6,000 years ago. Much of Britain was densely forested at this time but pollen analysis suggests that this area was quite open with oaks, hazel and birch scattered over grassland and heath.
The mineral-rich, thermal springs at Buxton would have attracted many animals, and most likely people too. We can’t know for sure what these people believed, but this area was probably considered to be a special place in the landscape.