The East Riding of Yorkshire, often shortened to the East Riding and alternatively known as East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to the south-west, and Lincolnshire to the south across the Humber Estuary. The city of Kingston upon Hull is the largest settlement.
The county has an area of and a population of 600,259. Hull is by far the largest settlement, with population of 267,014, and is a major port and the county's economic and transport centre. The rest of the county is largely rural, and the next largest towns are the seaside resort of Bridlington (35,369) and the historic town of Beverley (30,351). The county is governed by two unitarity authorities, East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Hull City Council. It takes its name from the East Riding, an historic subdivision of Yorkshire.
In the east of the county the low-lying plain of Holderness is enclosed by a crescent of low chalk hills, the Yorkshire Wolds. The Wolds meet the sea at Flamborough Head, a chalk headland, while the Holderness coast to the south is characterised by clay cliffs. The west of the county is part of the Vale of York, the wide plain of the River Ure/Ouse; the south-west is part of the Humberhead Levels.
When the last glacial period ended, the hunter gatherers of the Palaeolithic period followed the animal herds across the land between continental Europe and Britain. Then, as conditions continued to improve and vegetation could support a greater diversity of animals, the annual range of seasonal movement by Mesolithic communities decreased, and people became more fixed to particular localities. Until about 6000 BC, Mesolithic people appear to have exploited their environment as they found it. As communities came to rely on a smaller territorial range and as population levels increased, they started to try to modify or control the natural world.