My ‘Stone Age’ Year 

Many of you may have seen my earlier blogs, looking at the wild foods I might need to survive living off the land for an entire year. I am not just planning to eat wild food for the year however, I am also intending to do everything ‘wild’! So, gathering and making everything I will need, to live safely and comfortably for a year. And I really do mean EVERYTHING! From clothing and cookware to bedding and tools, each item to be made from natural materials that I have collected and crafted. So why would anyone want to do such a thing?! 

The idea originally came to me as a literal dream fifteen years ago, where I lived for a year using stone age technology and foraging for my food. On waking, I decided immediately this was something I wanted to do. I can’t remember why this appealed at the time, but I can tell you the reasons it has continued to be something I wanted to do: self-reliance; connecting to the land; connecting to ancestors. I want to see that I can rely on my own hands, knowledge and experience: to know that I can truly look after myself.  

As I collect food and firewood, barks and rushes for containers and cordage, skins for clothing, I am connecting physically with my surroundings. The more I do this, the more I am aware of the bounties on offer and the more I am grateful for what is around me. It may sound a bit ‘out there,’ but I feel connections to my surroundings deep within myself: the atmosphere and air of the woods, billowing clouds, the twinkling of a stream, each can resonate in my chest, legs, arms, anywhere! I am hoping that a year spent mainly outdoors, will give me the time and space to deepen this connection. 

We can never know exactly how people in the past lived. The archaeological record offers fragmentary glimpses, with ethnography supplementing this hazy picture, but generally we tend to project our own cultural experiences onto ideas of the past. Therefore, I am not attempting to re-create a ‘stone age’ life. Relying on a similar set of resources as people in the past, living in natural shelters and with deeper contact with the seasons and weather, may however, go some way to putting me in touch with some of their experiences.  

So, what am I actually planning? While I aim for the dream of everything made by me, I must fit in with the realities of my life. I do not have the time to make everything in advance using stone age technology, so I am making use of twenty-first century equipment: a car to access and move resources; metal tools and electrical apparatus to prepare food and clothing. While this reduces the depth of connection gained while gathering and preparing, I need to be pragmatic and be ready to get out onto the land before I am too old! Indeed, this year has been planned to take place in 2024 as a fiftieth birthday gift to myself. 

Once I begin, my tools and equipment will be only what I have made from gathered resources (by me or gifted by others): flint and bone tools; skin and felt clothing and bedding, sewn with deer sinew; pit-fired ceramics; skin and wooden cooking vessels and eating utensils. There’s a lot to do! I will begin at the summer solstice, no matter how ready I feel. If I wait for every item to be made, I will never get there. As long as I can keep warm and dry, I hope that the rest of my equipment can be made or finished as I go. I look forward to keeping you all updated as I near the start date, as well as send out smoke signals once I begin.