Small fragments of stone that reveal information about Dartmoor's hunter-gatherer past have been found during a five-week archaeological dig program.
According to scientists, the fragments may help us learn more about the people who inhabited the area more than 10,000 years ago.
Emma Stockley is leading the project
According to the Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA), they have been discovered in several places.
The project's coordinator, Emma Stockley, claimed that the flint bits provide "tantalizing clues" about the past.
They are believed to be from the Mesolithic era, which lasted from 10,000 to 4,000 BC.
According to DNPA, this was the time when trees began to expand throughout Dartmoor as a result of the climate's rapid warming after the end of the Ice Age.
Up to 50 volunteers have been involved with the digs
It is known that people once engaged in small-group hunting for wild animals like deer and wild auroch cattle as well as gathering berries and nuts.
Workers on the project have been searching for signs of the equipment they used and the waste they left behind.
"I've always been fascinated by the idea of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers on Dartmoor and the tantalizing hints that these tiny pieces of flint or chert offer us about how communities lived and used the surrounding landscape," said Ms. Stockley, a PhD candidate at the University of Leicester and former DNPA employee.
Visitors may be utterly ignorant of this key phase in Dartmoor's past because the archaeology from this era is considerably less visible than that from later periods on Dartmoor.
The digs have found fragments of tools used more than 10,000 years ago
The project has also involved a group of 50 volunteers.
Dr. Lee Bray, an archaeologist from the DNPA, stated that Emma's research "will not only add to our understanding of this significant period in Dartmoor's human past, but it will also help us develop techniques for managing Dartmoor's archaeological heritage so the landscape is better understood, valued, and cared for."
