Star Carr Volume 1
These two huge hardback volumes document years of painstaking archaeology at Star Carr, "one of the most important Mesolithic sites in Europe".
I wanted to reflect its importance with a cover and font choice that was suitably grand. The editors were happy with my idea to showcase the beautiful hand-drawn illustration by one of their team. It's an antler headdress found in the first excavations in the 1940s. It may have been used for hunting or for shamanic rituals - either way it's a striking symbol of the mysteries unearthed at the dig over decades of work.
Star Carr Volume 2
The second volume cover design showcases another illustration, this time of an engraved shale pendant unearthed in 2015. The artwork on the pendant is the earliest known Mesolithic art in Britain, its 'barbed line' motif comparable to styles found in Denmark. The archaeology team used digital imaging techniques to examine the engravings in detail so I felt this was an apt image to showcase Volume 2: a modern-age e-book documenting human life of 14,000 years ago.
