First I would like to acknowledge the whole field of Quaternary Research, especially the Members and Associate Members of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project, and the Leverhulme Trust, without whom there would have been no project, and little for me to write about! A number of these colleagues have given me additional help with the book in the form of information, checking text and providing illustrations. In particular, Silvia Bello prepared a number of the illustrations, including the maps. I would especially like to thank Sarah Lazarus for her considerable time and trouble in interviewing us and compiling the personal profiles that make up most of the Appendix. I am also very grateful to the Natural History Museum and the many staff who have supported AHOB and me over the last five years, and this includes the NHM Photographic Unit for all their work on specimens and in the field and Richard Fortey for reading parts of the manuscript. Finally I would like to thank Angela Marshall and Mark Lewis for help with the proofs, John Brockman for his encouragement and the staff of Penguin Books, especially my editor Will Goodlad, for all their work in bringing this book to fruition.
Illustration Acknowledgements
Every effort has been made to contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be happy to make good in future editions any errors or omissions brought to their attention.
INTRODUCTION In the Beginning
3 Hand axes from Hoxne, Suffolk, 1800 (Wellcome Trust Medical Photo graphic Library)
4 Georges Cuvier, lecturing (© Natural History Museum, London)
8 Buckland enters Kirkdale Cave (© Oxford Museum of Natural History)
13 John Philp’s promotional poster for Brixham Cavern (© Natural History Museum, London) 16 Map (Silvia Bello © AHOB)
28 Mauer jaw (© Natural History Museum, London)
CHAPTER ONE The First Britons
38 Map (Silvia Bello © AHOB)
47 Map (Silvia Bello © AHOB)
51 Species migration diagram (© M. Lahr/R. Foley)
CHAPTER TWO Understanding Ice Ages
55 Milankovich diagrams, Geoff Penna (© Thames & Hudson Ltd, London. From The Complete World of Human Evolution by Chris Stringer and Peter Andrews, Thames & Hudson, London and New York)
60 Map (Silvia Bello © AHOB)
CHAPTER THREE The Great Interglacial
78 Map (Silvia Bello © AHOB)
82 Map (Silvia Bello © AHOB)
CHAPTER FOUR Deserted Britain
96 Map (Silvia Bello © AHOB)
CHAPTER FIVE Nanderthals and Us
116 Map (Silvia Bello © AHOB)
121 Goat Hole Cave, Paviland (© Wellcome Trust Medical Photographic Library)
125 Map (Silvia Bello © AHOB)
129 Homo comparison (© Natural History Museum, London)
CHAPTER SIX What they Gorged in Cheddar
142 ‘Remarkable Discovery in Cheddar Caves’ (© Natural History Museum, London)
146 Map (Silvia Bello © AHOB)
CHAPTER SEVEN Our Challenging Climates
175 Map (Silvia Bello © AHOB)
PLATE SECTION
1 Happisbugh, Norfolk, March 2006(© Mike Page)
2 Portrait of William Buckland, Ansdell, c. 1843(© Geological Society/NHMPL)
3 Hyaena jaw (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London)
4 Pakefield tools (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London)
5 ‘Roger’, Boxgrove human tibia (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London)
6 (top) Red deer antler hammer (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London)
7 (bottom) Rhino pelvis (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London)
8 Boxgrove scatter (© Boxgrove Project)
9 Black flint handaxe back, Happisburgh (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London)
10 White flint stone tool (front), Boxgrove (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London)
11 (left) Prepared core (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London) (centre) Neanderthal handaxe (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London) (right) Swanscombe handaxe (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London)
12 Aerial view River Thames, London (© GeoPerspectives 2006)
13 Ice Age fossils from the Natural History Museum
14 Author at Westbury, 1971(© Natural History Museum, London)
15 Hippos among dense delta vegetation in Botswana (Getty Images)
16 Glacier, Antarctica (© Getty Images)
17 A line of African elephants march through grasslands (© Getty Images)
18 Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia (© Getty Images)
19 Flooded fields, Cheshire (© Getty Images)
20 Swanscombe skull bones (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London)
21 (left) Brown bear humerus, Germany (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London) (right) Giant Bear humerus (part), Banwell (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London)
22 Mammoth tusk, Lynford (© Nigel Larkin/Phil Rye)
23 Siberian mammoth in St Petersburg Museum of Zoology (© Getty Images)
24 Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon skulls (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London)
25 Cast of Mammoth engraving (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London)
26 Reindeer antler bâton (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London)
27 Creswell Crags cave art (© English Heritage and Creswell Heritage Trust, by courtesy of Paul Pettitt and Paul Bahn)
28 Barbed points, Star Carr (Benoît Audureau © Natural History Museum, London)
29 Amber from Star Carr (© Natural History Museum, London)
30 Formby footprint, adolescent or young female (© Gordon Roberts)
Sources and Further Reading
GENERAL READING
N. Barton, Ice Age Britain (Batsford, London, 2005)
E. Delson, I. Tattersall, J. Van Couvering and A. Brooks (eds.) Encyclopedia of Human Evolution and Prehistory (second edn; Garland Press, New York, 2000)
D. Johanson and B. Edgar, From Lucy to Language (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1996)
R. Jones and D. Keen, Pleistocene Environments in the British Isles (Chapman and Hall, London, 1993)
R. G. Klein, The Human Career (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1999)
R. Lewin, Human Evolution: An Illustrated Guide (fourth edn; Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, 1999)
S. Lewis and N. Ashton (eds.), The Palaeolithic Occupation of Europe: In Memory of John J. Wymer 1928–2006, special issue of Journal of Quaternary Science, 21(2006; now available on-line at the Wiley website: http://www 3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/2507). This volume, in memory of Associate Member John Wymer, contains nine contributions by AHOB Members or Associates on a number of different sites.
C. Stringer, Hominid Remains – An Update, Volume 3: British Isles and East Germany, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1990, pp. 1–40
C. Stringer, ‘Modern Human Origins: Progress and Prospects’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London (B) 357 (2002), 563–79
C. Stringer, ‘The Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) Project’, Transactions of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society 99(2005), 29–32
C. Stringer and P. Andrews, The Complete World of Human Evolution (Thames and Hudson, London, 2005)
C. Stringer and C. Gamble, In Search of the Neanderthals (Thames and Hudson, London, 1993)
A. J. Stuart, Pleistocene Vertebrates in the British Isles (Longman, London, 1982)
A. J. Sutcliffe, On the Track of Ice Age Mammals (British Museum (Natural History), London, 1985)
K. Willis, K. Bennett and D. Walker (eds.), The Evolutionary Legacy of the Ice Ages (Royal Society, London, 2004)
The AHOB website: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/ahob/
The National Ice Age Network website: http://www.iceage.bham.ac.uk/home.html
INTRODUCTION In the Beginning
G. Daniel, A Short History of Archaeol
ogy (Thames and Hudson, London, 1981)
D. A. McFarlane and J. Lundberg, ‘The 19th-century Excavation of Kent’s Cavern, England’, Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 67(2005), 39–47
K. Oakley, ‘The Problem of Man’s Antiquity: An Historical Survey’, Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History (Geology) 9 (1964), 85–155
M. Pitts and M. Roberts, Fairweather Eden (Century, London, 1997)
J. Weiner and C. Stringer, The Piltdown Forgery (50th anniversary edition) (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003)
CHAPTER ONE The First Britons
(various authors) ‘Pakefield: A Weekend to Remember’, British Archaeology 86(2006), 18–27
S. C. Antón and C. C. Swisher III, ‘Early Dispersals of Homo from Africa’, Annual Review of Anthropology 33(2004), 271–96
N. M. Ashton, J. Cook, S. G. Lewis and J. Rose, High Lodge: Excavations by G. de G Sieveking, 1962–8, and J. Cook, 1988 (British Museum Press, London, 1992)
N. M. Ashton, S. G. Lewis and S. A. Parfitt, ‘High Lodge 2002’, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural History 40(part 3; forthcoming)
J. M. Bermúdez de Castro, E. Carbonell and J. L. Arsuaga (eds.), ‘Gran Dolina Site: TD6 Aurora Stratum (Burgos, Spain)’, Journal of Human Evolution 37(1999; special issue), 309–700
J. M. Bermúdez de Castro, M. Martinón-Torres, E. Carbonell, S. Sarmiento, A. Rosas, J. van der Made and M. Lozano, ‘The Atapuerca Sites and their Contribution to the Knowledge of Human Evolution in Europe’, Evolutionary Anthropology 13 (2004), 24–41
R. Dennell and W. Roebroeks, ‘An Asian Perspective on Early Human Dispersal from Africa’, Nature 438(2005), 1099–104
L. Gabunia, S. C. Antón, D. Lordkipanidze, A. Vekua, A. Justus and C. C. Swisher III, ‘Dmanisi and Dispersal’, Evolutionary Anthropology 10(2001), 158–70
C. Gamble, ‘Time for Boxgrove Man’, Nature 369(1994), 275–6
R. Gore, ‘Dawn of Humans: Expanding Worlds’, National Geographic (May 1997), 84–109
R. Gore, ‘Dawn of Humans: The First Europeans’, National Geographic (July 1997), 96–113
J. R. Lee, J. Rose, J. O. Hamblin and B. S. P. Moorlock, ‘Dating the Earliest Lowland Glaciation of Eastern England: A Pre-MIS 12 Early Middle Pleistocene Happisburgh Glaciation’, Quaternary Science Reviews 23(2004), 1551–66
J. R. Lee, J. Rose, I. Candy and R. W. Barendregt, ‘Sea-level Changes, River Activity, Soil Development and Glaciation around the Western Margins of the Southern North Sea Basin during the Early and Early Middle Pleistocene: Evidence from Pakefield, Suffolk, UK’, Journal of Quaternary Science 21(2005) 155–79
S. Lewis, C. Whiteman and R. Preece (eds.), Norfolk and Suffolk Field Guide (Quaternary Research Association, London, 2000)
G. Manzi, ‘Human Evolution at the Matuyama–Brunhes Boundary’, Evolutionary Anthropology 13 (2004), 11–24
S. Parfitt, R. Barendregt, M. Breda, I. Candy, M. Collins, G. R. Coope, P. Durbidge, M. Field, J. Lee, A. Lister, R. Mutch, K. Penkman, R. Preece, J. Rose, C. Stringer, R. Symmons, J. Whittaker, J. Wymer and A. Stuart, ‘The Earliest Record of Human Activity in Northern Europe’, Nature 438 (2005), 1008–12
G. Philip Rightmire, D. Lordkipanidze and A. Vekua, ‘Anatomical Descriptions, Comparative Studies and Evolutionary Significance of the Hominin Skulls from Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia’, Journal of Human Evolution 50 (2006), 115–41
W. Roebroeks and T. van Kolfschoten, ‘The Earliest Occupation of Europe: A Short Chronology’, Antiquity 68(1994), 489–503
W. Roebroeks, ‘Hominid Behaviour and the Earliest Occupation of Europe: An Exploration’, Journal of Human Evolution 41(2001), 437–61
D. C. Schreve (ed.), The Quaternary Mammals of Southern and Eastern England Field Guide (Quaternary Research Association, London, 2004)
CHAPTER TWO Understanding Ice Ages
P. Andrews, J. Cook, A. Currant and C. Stringer (eds.), Westbury Cave: The Natural History Museum Excavations 1976–1984 (Western Academic and Specialist Press, Bristol, 1999)
J. Hays, J. Imbrie and N. Shackleton, ‘Variations in the Earth’s Orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages’, Science 194(1976), 1121–32
S. Lewis, C. Whiteman and R. Preece (eds.), Norfolk and Suffolk Field Guide (Quaternary Research Association, London, 2000)
R. Meyrick and D. Schreve (eds.), Central Germany (Thuringia) Field Guide (Quaternary Research Association, London, 2002)
J. Murton, C. Whiteman, M. Bates, D. Bridgland, A. Long, M. Roberts and M. Waller (eds.), Kent and Sussex Field Guide (Quaternary Research Association, London, 1998)
S. Parfitt, ‘A Butchered Bone from Norfolk: Evidence for Very Early Human Presence in Britain’, Archaeology International 8(2005), 15–18
M. Roberts and S. Parfitt (eds.), Boxgrove: A Middle Pleistocene Hominid Site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove, West Sussex (English Heritage Archaeological Report 17, London, 1999)
D. C. Schreve (ed.), The Quaternary Mammals of Southern and Eastern England Field Guide (Quaternary Research Association, London, 2004)
C. Stringer, E. Trinkaus, M. Roberts, S. Parfitt and R. Macphail, ‘The Middle Pleistocene Human Tibia from Boxgrove’, Journal of Human Evolution 34(1998), 509–47
J. Wymer, The Lower Palaeolithic Occupation of Britain (Trust for Wessex Archaeology, Salisbury, 1999)
CHAPTER THREE The Great Interglacial
J. L. Arsuaga, J. M. Bermúdez de Castro and E. Carbonell (eds.), ‘The Sima de los Huesos Hominid Site’, Journal of Human Evolution 33(1997), 105–421
N. M. Ashton, J. McNabb, B. Irving, S. G. Lewis and S. Parfitt, ‘Contemporaneity of Clactonian and Acheulian Flint Industries at Barnham, Suffolk’, Antiquity 68(1994), 585–9
N. M. Ashton, S. G. Lewis and S. A. Parfitt, ‘Hoxne 2003’, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural History (forthcoming)
J. M. Bermúdez de Castro, M. Martinón-Torres, E. Carbonell, S. Sarmiento, A. Rosas, J. van der Made and M. Lozano, ‘The Atapuerca Sites and their Contribution to the Knowledge of Human Evolution in Europe’, Evolutionary Anthropology 13(2004), 24–41
D. R. Bridgland, D. C. Schreve, D. H. Keen, R. Meyrick and R. Westaway, ‘Biostratigraphical Correlation between the Late Quaternary Sequence of the Thames and Key Fluvial Localities in Central Germany’, Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 115(2004), 125–40
K. Duff (ed.), The Story of Swanscombe Man (Kent County Council and Nature Conservancy Council, Canterbury, 1985)
C. Gamble and M. Porr (eds.), The Hominid Individual in Context: Archaeological Investigations of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Landscapes, Locales and Artefacts (Routledge, London, 2005)
S. Lewis, C. Whiteman and R. Preece (eds.), Norfolk and Suffolk Field Guide (Quaternary Research Association, London, 2000)
R. Meyrick and D. Schreve (eds.), Central Germany (Thuringia) Field Guide (Quaternary Research Association, London, 2005)
J. Murton, C. Whiteman, M. Bates, D. Bridgland, A. Long, M. Roberts and
M. Waller (eds.), Kent and Sussex Field Guide (Quaternary Research Association, London, 1998)
M. Pitts, ‘Who Ate the Elephant?’, British Archaeology 80(2005), 28–9
D. C. Schreve (ed.), The Quaternary Mammals of Southern and Eastern England Field Guide (Quaternary Research Association, London, 2004)
M. J. White and S. J. Plunkett, Miss Layard Excavates: A Palaeolithic Site at Foxhall Road, Ipswich, 1903–1905 (Western Academic and Specialist Press, Bristol, 2004)
CHAPTER FOUR Deserted Britain
S. Aldhouse-Green (ed.), Pontnewydd and the Elwy Valley Caves (University of Wales Press and National Museums and Galleries of Wales, Cardiff, forthcoming)
N. Ashton and S. Lewis, ‘Deserted Britain: Declining Populations in the British Late Middle Pleistocene’, Antiquity 76(2002), 388–96
N. Ashton, ‘Absence of Humans in Britain during the Last Interglacial (Oxygen Isotope Stage 5e)’, in A. Tuffreau and W. Roebroeks (eds.), Le Dernier Interglaciaire et les Occupations
Humaines du Paléolithique Moyen (Publications du CERP, Lille, 2002)
N. Ashton, R. Jacobi and M. White, ‘The Dating of Levallois Sites in West London’, Quaternary Newsletter 99(2003), 25–32
D. R. Bridgland, D. C. Schreve, D. H. Keen, R. Meyrick and R. Westaway, ‘Biostratigraphical Correlation between the Late Quaternary Sequence of the Thames and Key Fluvial Localities in Central Germany’,Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 115(2004), 125–40
P. Callow and J. Cornford (eds.), La Cotte de St. Brelade 1961–1978 (Geo Books, Norwich, 1986)
A. P. Currant and R. M. Jacobi, ‘A Formal Mammalian Biostratigraphy for the Late Pleistocene of Britain’, Quaternary Science Reviews 20(2001), 1707–16
P. L. Gibbard and J. P. Lautridou, ‘The Quaternary History of the English Channel: An Introduction’, Journal of Quaternary Science 18(2003), 195–9
M. Gilmour, A. Currant, R. Jacobi and C. Stringer, Recent TIMs dating results from British late Plaistocene vertebrate found localities: context and interpretation. Journal of Quarternary Science 22, (2007), 1–8
H. S. Green (ed.), Pontnewydd Cave: A Lower Palaeolithic Hominid Site in Wales (National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, 1984)
R. Preece (ed.), Island Britain: A Quaternary Perspective (The Geological Society, London, 1995)
D. C. Schreve, ‘Differentiation of the British Late Middle Pleistocene Interglacials: The Evidence from Mammalian Biostratigraphy’, Quaternary Science Reviews 20(2001), 1693–705
D. C. Schreve (ed.), The Quaternary Mammals of Southern and Eastern England Field Guide (Quaternary Research Association, London, 2004)
D. C. Schreve, D. R. Bridgland, P. Allen, J. J. Blackford, C. P. Gleed-Owen, H. I. Griffiths, D. H. Keen and M. J. White, ‘Sedimentology, Palaeontology and Archaeology of Late Middle Pleistocene River Thames Deposits at Purfleet, Essex, UK’, Quaternary Science Reviews 21 (2002), 1423–64
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