Early Pleistocene conifer macrofossils from Happisburgh, Norfolk, UK, and their environmental implications for early hominin occupation

Abstract

Continuing coastal erosion in the vicinity of Happisburgh in north Norfolk has revealed archaeological sites documenting early human presence during at least two episodes in the Early and Early Middle Pleistocene. At Happisburgh 3, the oldest archaeological site in northern Europe (approximately 900,000 years old) finds include at least 80 flint artefacts and human footprints associated with abundant, well-preserved organic remains. The deposits consist of gravels and estuarine sands and silts contained within a complex of channels, which accumulated in the estuary of a large river, probably the ancestral River Thames. The environmental remains reflect a slow-flowing tidal river, at the limit of tidal influence, and a grassland valley bordered

The mutual ecogeographical range and paleoclimatic reconstruction during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene in the Pampas (Argentina) using meso and microvertebrate fossils

“…In the Netherlands and Italy, this method was used to reconstruct paleoclimates inferred with amphibian and reptiles (Blain et al, 2019; Villa et al, 2018). In Great Britain, this method was used to reconstruct paleoclimates inferred by the association of mammals (Polly and Eronen, 2011) and conifer macrofossils (Farjon et al, 2020). In North America, the method was used to infer the interglacial paleoclimate, by means the mammal association in Indiana, U.S.A. (Smith and Polly, 2013).…”

“…However, present methods like Mutual Ecogeographic Range (MER), allow us to reconstruct paleoclimates using a vertebrate fossil assembly (Blain et al, 2009, 2016, 2018), and climate niche on taxa’s distribution (Eronen et al, 2010; Polly et al, 2011) as ecometric (measurable part of a fossil proxy). The MER has been used in the Iberian Peninsula (Blain et al, 2009, 2018 for a review; Fagoaga et al, 2019; Fernández-García et al, 2020), The Netherlands (Villa et al, 2018), Italy (Blain et al, 2019), Great Britain (Farjon et al, 2020; Polly and Eronen, 2011), North America (Smith and Polly, 2013), and México (Cruz et al, 2016, 2021; Hernándcz-Hernández et al, 2020), showing results that match those from other proxies like pollen, microorganisms, and glacier records.…”

Coastal curios? An analysis of ex situ beach finds for mapping new Palaeolithic sites at Happisburgh, UK

“…The Hill House Member has yielded a rich array of environmental evidence, suggesting the site was situated in an open grassland valley, surrounded by coniferous forest with winter temperatures several degrees lower than East Anglia today (Parfitt et al, 2010;Farjon et al, 2020). The excavated archaeological assemblage of 80 artefacts consists of simple flint flakes, flake tools and cores, but no handaxes.…”

“…The CF-bF is no less important for Palaeolithic studies: it was not until recently that hominins were shown to be present, confirmed first by the discovery of artefacts at Pakefield (Parfitt et al, 2005), and further by the aforementioned excavations at Happisburgh Site 1 (0.5 Ma: Lewis et al, 2019) and Site 3 (~0.8-0.9 Ma: Parfitt et al, 2010;Ashton et al, 2014); this is currently the earliest archaeological evidence in northern Europe. At the Happisburgh sites, the association of stone tools with rich environmental evidence shows that hominins were surviving harsh winter conditions (Parfitt et al, 2010;Farjon et al, 2020). This has prompted reappraisal of their technological and behavioural capabilities at such an early date, as well as the nature of migrations after initial African dispersals (Parfitt et al, 2010;Ashton and Lewis, 2012;MacDonald and Roebroeks, 2012;Hosfield et al, 2016;Hosfield and Cole, 2018;Muttoni et al, 2018).…”

Reassessment of the ‘Abbevillien’ in the perspective of new discoveries from the Lower Palaeolithic and Quaternary sites of Abbeville (Somme, northern France)

“…The earliest evidence of human occupation of North‐West Europe dates from c. 700 to 900 ka. Current data (British sites of Happisburgh 3 and Pakefield, and several German sites such as Münster‐Sarmsheim, Dorn‐Dürkheim, Mauer, Kärlich A and Miesenheim) suggest that the earliest hominins occupied this area only during temperate climatic periods and left the area when the climate was too cold (Parfitt et al ., 2005, 2010; Wagner et al ., 2010; MacDonald et al ., 2012; Fiedler et al ., 2019; Farjon et al ., 2020).…”