Boxgrove: A Middle Pleistocene Hominid site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove, West Sussex

McBrearty, Sally

doi:10.1002/1520-6548(200012)15:8<819::aid-gea5>3.0.co;2-z

Cited by 13 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The earliest known assemblage of bones and antlers used to knap lithic tools is dated to ca 500 000 years ago at Boxgrove, UK. These findings have been reported by Roberts & Parfitt [32], Smith [33], Stout et al [34] and Pope et al [35]. One of the most significant discoveries at Boxgrove is the assemblage of bone and antler hammers found alongside finely flaked Acheulean handaxes and rarer flake tools.…”

Section: Lower Palaeolithic Originssupporting

confidence: 66%

Bone tools, carnivore chewing and heavy percussion: assessing conflicting interpretations of Lower and Upper Palaeolithic bone assemblages

Parfitt,

Bello

2024

R. Soc. open sci.

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The use of bone tools by early humans has provided valuable insights into their technology, behaviour and cognitive abilities. However, identifying minimally modified or unshaped Palaeolithic osseous tools can be challenging, particularly when they are mixed with bones altered by natural taphonomic processes. This has hampered the study of key technical innovations, such as the use of bones, antlers and teeth as hammers or pressure-flakers to work (knap) stone tools. Bones chewed by carnivores can resemble osseous knapping tools and have sometimes been mistaken for them. In this paper, we review recent advances in the study of osseous knapping tools with a focus on two Palaeolithic sites in the UK, the Acheulean Horse Butchery Site at Boxgrove and the Magdalenian site of Gough's Cave, where knapping tools were mis-attributed to carnivore chewing. These osseous knapping tools are investigated using microscopy, high-resolution imaging and comparisons with experimental knapping tools. This allows for new insights into human behaviour at these sites and opens fresh avenues for future research.

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Section: Lower Palaeolithic Originssupporting

confidence: 66%

Bone tools, carnivore chewing and heavy percussion: assessing conflicting interpretations of Lower and Upper Palaeolithic bone assemblages

Parfitt,

Bello

2024

R. Soc. open sci.

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“…Technological studies of percussion retouch have been carried out for decades in European contexts. A higher level of preservation of organic materials in this continent provides a framework for the use of bone retouchers across different regions from 500ky BP (Roberts & Parfitt, 1999) to the advent of the Metal Ages (Blasco et al, 2013;d'Errico & Henshilwood, 2007;Doyon et al, 2018;Henri-Martin, 1910;Henshilwood et al, 2001;Jéquier et al, 2018;Julien et al, 2015;Martellotta et al, 2020;Rosell et al, 2011Rosell et al, , 2018Ruiz et al, 2021;Semenov & Thompson, 1964;Tartar, 2012;Turner et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2018; for a complete overview see Hutson et al, 2018). These studies found that bone retouchers were opportunistic tools: most retouchers being manufactured from bone shaft fragments obtained from the upper and lower limbs of large ungulates following the butchering of the animal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New data from old collections: Retouch-induced marks on Australian hardwood boomerangs

Martellotta

Wilkins

Brumm

et al. 2021

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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“…The more heavily rolled and cruder bifaces from this collection are, however, argued to have been discarded by hominins during MIS 15 and to represent reworked materials from the older Timworth terrace [10]. The handaxes from the Slindon Formation at Boxgrove (West Sussex), exceptional in terms of their levels of refinement and preservation [33], are well accepted at MIS 13 (500 ka) and represent some of the earliest in situ Acheulean artefacts discovered in Britain. In addition, seven other British sites, all with evidence of handaxes, are known from roughly 500 ka.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

On the earliest Acheulean in Britain: first dates and in-situ artefacts from the MIS 15 site of Fordwich (Kent, UK)

et al. 2022

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Northern Europe experienced cycles of hominin habitation and absence during the Middle Pleistocene. Fluvial gravel terrace sites in the east of Britain and north of France provide a majority of the data contributing to this understanding, mostly through the presence or absence of stone-tool artefacts. To date, however, relatively few sites have been radiometrically dated, and many have not been excavated in modern times, leading to an over-reliance on selectively sampled and poorly dated lithic assemblages. This includes Fordwich (Kent, UK), where over 330 bifaces were discovered through industrial quarrying in the 1920s. Here, we present the first excavation and dating of artefacts discovered in situ at Fordwich, alongside their technological analysis and relationship to those previously recovered. The site is demonstrated to retain deposits of Lower Palaeolithic artefacts, with 251 flakes, scrapers and cores identified to date. Infrared-radiofluorescence (IR-RF) dating of feldspar reveals 112 artefacts to have come from levels dating to at least 570 ± 36 to 513 ± 30 thousand years ago (ka) and are most plausibly assigned to an MIS 14 deposition, with artefacts produced during MIS 15 (approx. 560–620 ka). Indeed, these IR-RF samples provide minimum ages for artefacts. Combined with evidence from exposures linked to the original quarrying activities, a similar MIS 15 age is suggested for the more than 330 handaxe artefacts discovered in the 1920s. The remaining excavated artefacts come from levels dated to between 347 ± 22 and 385 ± 21 ka (MIS 10 or 11), with this later age interpreted to reflect post-MIS 14 deposition by substrate gullying and solifluction. These data demonstrate Fordwich to be one of the earliest Palaeolithic sites in northwestern Europe, and to retain the only large Acheulean handaxe assemblage directly dated to pre-MIS 13. Thus, Fordwich is determined to be a crucial piece of the pre-Anglian Palaeolithic puzzle in northern Europe.

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Boxgrove: A Middle Pleistocene Hominid site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove, West Sussex

Cited by 13 publications

References 15 publications

Bone tools, carnivore chewing and heavy percussion: assessing conflicting interpretations of Lower and Upper Palaeolithic bone assemblages

Bone tools, carnivore chewing and heavy percussion: assessing conflicting interpretations of Lower and Upper Palaeolithic bone assemblages

New data from old collections: Retouch-induced marks on Australian hardwood boomerangs

On the earliest Acheulean in Britain: first dates and in-situ artefacts from the MIS 15 site of Fordwich (Kent, UK)

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