ARCHEOLOGISTS have found an ancient festival site near Carlisle, which the believe may shed new light on the origins of British identity.

More than 600 red ochre fragments have been recovered at the 6,500-year-old probable ceremonial prehistoric, located near Carlisle – along with the grinding stones used to reduce lumps of red ochre to powder, which experts believe is probably for the production of pigment.

The find located on what had been a small (1.2 acre) island in the River Eden, in prehistoric times (now Stainton West, near Carlisle) is the largest collection of pieces of red ochre ever found in Britain, with archaeologists believing the site has been used for ‘major ritually and economically significant communal gatherings’ in days gone by.

News and Star: An aerial view of the Stone Age site at Stainton West near Carlisle with the river Eden in the background. The excavations revealed the Prehistoric channel of the river which attracted human activity for millennia.An aerial view of the Stone Age site at Stainton West near Carlisle with the river Eden in the background. The excavations revealed the Prehistoric channel of the river which attracted human activity for millennia. (Image: Oxford Archaeology)

Over 300,000 fragments of flint work debris have been found at just the 12% of the island which has been excavated, suggesting that hundreds of arrows and artifacts were being created at every gathering during the late Mesolithic times, suggesting the number of people at the gatherings could likely have exceeded 100, attracting members of up to half a dozen different small hunter-gatherer bands and extended families.

The artifacts found at the site have revealed that the people who gathered there either came from a very wide geographical area, with volcanic glass being found from as far as the Isle of Arran.

News and Star: Archaeologists working at Stainton West near Carlisle, taking samples of the soil from the ancient river bed where evidence of human activity was found. Archaeologists working at Stainton West near Carlisle, taking samples of the soil from the ancient river bed where evidence of human activity was found. (Image: Oxford Archaeology)

Speaking to the Independent, leader of the archaeological investigation, Fraser Brown of the UK consultancy, Oxford Archaeology said: “The Carlisle site is important because it demonstrates the social complexity of Mesolithic hunter-gatherer society - and the remarkable extent to which widely dispersed communities interacted across much of Britain.”

Some believe that the red ochre discovery at the Carlisle site, may well have been an early part of a continuous British body-painting tradition which ultimately generated the name of the island, with the origin of the word Britain thought to have been ‘the land of the painted people’.

For more information on this ancient site you can click here.