Evidence of what would have been a 3.5 metre diameter house has been found at the Star Carr archaeological site, which was occupied by hunter gatherers 11,000 years ago, when Britain was attached to continental Europe.

The remains were dated by radio carbon and the type of tools used – which have identified the house as being from 8,500BC, older than the previous oldest known house, in Howick, Northumberland.

The people living here would have been among the first settlers returning after the glaciers of the ice age had retreated.

It was a round house – a smaller version of iron age round houses – with a circle of timber posts around a sunken circular floor area, which could have been covered by reeds.

It is not known how the walls and roof were covered, but it could have been thatched or used animal hides.

Archaeologists believe that the house had been rebuilt over time and that there were likely to have been other houses at the site.

It suggests that people of this era were more attached to settlements than had been previously thought – staying in one place rather than drifting across the landscape.

The Star Carr site, inhabited after the last ice age, is believed to have been in use for between 200 and 500 years.

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The people living at Star Carr were hunters rather than farmers, catching animals such as deer, boar and elk, helped by domesticated dogs.

Archaeologists are also examining a wooden platform made from split timbers, near to the lakeside house, which is being claimed as the oldest example of carpentry so far discovered in Europe.

An 11,000-year-old tree trunk has also been found at the mesolithic-era site, with the bark still intact.

Chantal Conneller from the University of Manchester said: “This changes our ideas of the lives of the first settlers to move back into Britain after the end of the last ice age.

"We used to think they moved around a lot and left little evidence. Now we know they built large structures and were very attached to particular places in the landscape.”

The teams were congratulated by Universities Minister David Willetts: “This exciting discovery marries world-class research with the lives of our ancestors.

"It brings out the similarities and differences between modern life and the ancient past in a fascinating way, and will change our perceptions for ever.”

For early humans, taking in and caring for animals would seem like a poor strategy for survival. “On the face of it, you are wasting your resources. So this is a very weird behavior,” Shipman said.

But it’s not so weird in the context something else humans were doing about 2.6 million years ago: switching from a mostly vegetarian diet to one rich in meat. This happened because humans invented stone hunting tools that enabled them to compete with other top predators. Quite a rapid and bizarre switch for any animal, Shipman said.

“We shortcut the evolutionary process,” said Shipman, who published her ideas in the latest issue of Current Anthropology and in an upcoming book. “We don’t have the equipment to be carnivores.”

So we invented the equipment, learned how to track and kill, and eventually took in animals who also knew how to hunt – like wolves and other canines. Others, like goats, cows and horses, provided milk, hair and, finally, hides and meat.

Managing all of these animals – or just tracking them – requires technology, knowledge and ways to preserves and convey information. So languages had to develop and evolve to meet the challenges.

Tracking game has even been argued to be the origin of scientific inquiry, said Peter Richerson, professor emeritus in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California, Davis.

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There have also been genetic changes in both humans and our animals, Shipman argues.

For the animals those changes developed because human bred them for specific traits, like a cow that gives more milk or a hen that lays more eggs.

But this evolutionary influence works both ways. Dogs, for instance, might have have been selectively taken in by humans who shared genes for more compassion. Those humans then prospered – a.k.a. reproduced – with the dogs’ help in hunting and securing their homes.