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Boxgrove Palaeolithic site
The Boxgrove Palaeolithic site is a complex of internationally important Lower Palaeolithic archaeological sites in the former Eartham Quarry, north-east of Boxgrove in West Sussex, dating to around 480,000 years ago during the Middle Pleistocene. The oldest human remains in Britain, designated "Boxgrove Man", have been recovered from the site, possibly attributable to Homo heidelbergensis. Boxgrove is also one of the oldest sites in Europe with direct evidence of hunting and butchering by early humans. Only part of the site is protected through designation, one area being a 9.8-hectare (24-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, as well as a Geological Conservation Review site.
Other key Lower Paleolithic sites in the UK include the Happisburgh footprints (the oldest evidence of humans in Britain), Kents Cavern, and Swanscombe.
The site is close to a fossil shoreline and has a interglacial, temperate climate fauna in deposited in sediments representing initially coastal marine, transitioning upwards into coastal mudflat and later grassland and woodland environments. The site was discovered by Andrew Woodcock and Roy Shephard-Thorn in 1974. They recorded the geological sequence, in-situ artefacts and fossil mammal remains. Parts of the site complex were later excavated between 1982 and 1996 by a team led by Mark Roberts of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. The site is situated in an area that features a buried chalk cliff that overlooked a flat beach (which contained a waterhole) stretching approximately half a mile (1 km) south to the sea.
The site is located in the West Sussex coastal plain, immediately to the south of the South Downs, a chalk ridge that extends across much of Southeast England.xix The Boxgrove site was deposited on top of a wave-cut platform of chalk, when the site was located on the coast;xix it is now part of a raised beach. At the time, Boxgrove was on the north shore of an enclosed bay with a narrow entrance to the English Channel to the south, and Britain was a peninsula of mainland Europe, with southeast England being connected to northern France and the Netherlands by a land bridge, which separated the English Channel and North Sea.
The Boxgrove deposits make up part of the Slindon Formation, and were just south of a (now completely buried) chalk cliff face, estimated to have reached a height of 60 metres (200 ft) formed by marine erosion of the chalk. The site is now some 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) inland and 35–43.5 metres (115–143 ft) above present sea level, because of later tectonic uplift of the area after the deposition of the Boxgrove site. The earliest member of the Slindon Formation, the Slindon Sand member, comprising layers of gravel and sand, records near-shore marine conditions at the Boxgrove site. Above the Slindon Sand Member is the Slindon Silt Member, the main unit of archaeological and paleontological interest at site, which records the transition of the site from being underwater to emergent land, and consists of silt and an upper thin paleosol (preserved soil) layer, deposited in a temperate climate, which records a transition from mudflats (unit 4b) in the lower part of the member, up to a terrestrial grassland along with woodland and water pools (units 4c, 4d and 4u), subsequently transitioning upwards into a horizon of mineralized organics representing fen or carr (unit 5a). Above this lies clay and gravel deposits of the Eartham Lower Gravel Member, comprising cliff scree. This is covered by periglacial gravel deposits of the Eartham Upper Gravel Member (with both members being part of the Eartham Formation) deposited under cold arctic conditions.21-149
The Slindon Formation is thought to have been deposited during an episode of relatively high sea level. The Slindon Silt Member is dated to the interglacial period at the end of Marine Isotope Stage 13, around 480,000 years ago, based on biostratigraphic analysis of the species of mammal found at the site, with the Eartham Formation representing deposits of the subsequent Anglian glaciation during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 12. The fossiliferous terrestrial paleosol horizon of the Slindon Silt Member present at Boxgrove, though only relatively narrow at 30–250 metres (98–820 ft) wide, extends some distance from the site following an east-west axis along the base of the buried chalk cliff face, spanning 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) between Slindon Park and Adsdean Farm. Another site containing this horizon, Valdoe Quarry, 4.8 kilometres (3.0 mi) to the west of Boxgrove, has also yielded animal fossils and stone tools.
The site is important for many reasons, including the degree of preservation of ancient land surfaces, the impressive total extent of the palaeolandscape beyond the quarries (over 26 km wide), its huge quantity of well-preserved animal bones, its numerous flint artifacts, and its hominin fossils that are among some of the most ancient found yet in Europe. Several of the animal bones are the oldest found specimens of their species. The combination of bones, stone artifacts, and the geology of the landscape gives a very complete picture of the coastal plain as it existed half a million years ago.
Numerous species of animals, including snails, fish, lizards, amphibians including frogs and salamanders, and 50 species of mammals have been found at the site, many of which are still extant and a large subset of which still live in Britain today. Others, such as the European pine vole (Microtus subterraneus), which is one of the most common animals at the site, no longer inhabit Britain but are present in the European continental mainland. The site may contain the earliest record of the recently extinct Great auk (Pinguinus impennis).157-274 Remains of large animals have been found at the site, including rhinoceroses and indeterminate elephants (likely either the steppe mammoth Mammuthus trogontherii or the straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus).226,229 These include large carnivores, such as the grey wolf ancestor Canis mosbachensis, the large lion Panthera fossilis and Crocuta hyenas, originally attributed to the living spotted hyena (Crocuta spelaea),224 though other authors have argued that European Crocuta hyena remains from this time period should be attributed to the cave hyena (Crocuta spelaea). Several species of mammals found at the site became extinct during the Anglian glacial period that followed the deposition of the Boxgrove site, and are not present in the following Hoxnian interglacial (MIS 11) or later interglacials. These include Ursus deningeri (an early member of the cave bear lineage), members of the giant deer genus Praemegaceros, including the smaller British endemic P. dawkinsi and probably the larger P. verticornis, possibly the reindeer sized deer species Megaloceros/Praedama savini, the rhinoceros Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis, the extinct vole Pliomys episcopalis and the extinct long-tailed shrew Sorex savini. These taxa, in combination with archaic forms of the water vole (Arvicola) and narrow-headed vole (Stenocranius gregalis, which no longer occurs in Britain), constrain the age of the site to the end of Marine Isotope Stage 13.
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Boxgrove Palaeolithic site
The Boxgrove Palaeolithic site is a complex of internationally important Lower Palaeolithic archaeological sites in the former Eartham Quarry, north-east of Boxgrove in West Sussex, dating to around 480,000 years ago during the Middle Pleistocene. The oldest human remains in Britain, designated "Boxgrove Man", have been recovered from the site, possibly attributable to Homo heidelbergensis. Boxgrove is also one of the oldest sites in Europe with direct evidence of hunting and butchering by early humans. Only part of the site is protected through designation, one area being a 9.8-hectare (24-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, as well as a Geological Conservation Review site.
Other key Lower Paleolithic sites in the UK include the Happisburgh footprints (the oldest evidence of humans in Britain), Kents Cavern, and Swanscombe.
The site is close to a fossil shoreline and has a interglacial, temperate climate fauna in deposited in sediments representing initially coastal marine, transitioning upwards into coastal mudflat and later grassland and woodland environments. The site was discovered by Andrew Woodcock and Roy Shephard-Thorn in 1974. They recorded the geological sequence, in-situ artefacts and fossil mammal remains. Parts of the site complex were later excavated between 1982 and 1996 by a team led by Mark Roberts of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. The site is situated in an area that features a buried chalk cliff that overlooked a flat beach (which contained a waterhole) stretching approximately half a mile (1 km) south to the sea.
The site is located in the West Sussex coastal plain, immediately to the south of the South Downs, a chalk ridge that extends across much of Southeast England.xix The Boxgrove site was deposited on top of a wave-cut platform of chalk, when the site was located on the coast;xix it is now part of a raised beach. At the time, Boxgrove was on the north shore of an enclosed bay with a narrow entrance to the English Channel to the south, and Britain was a peninsula of mainland Europe, with southeast England being connected to northern France and the Netherlands by a land bridge, which separated the English Channel and North Sea.
The Boxgrove deposits make up part of the Slindon Formation, and were just south of a (now completely buried) chalk cliff face, estimated to have reached a height of 60 metres (200 ft) formed by marine erosion of the chalk. The site is now some 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) inland and 35–43.5 metres (115–143 ft) above present sea level, because of later tectonic uplift of the area after the deposition of the Boxgrove site. The earliest member of the Slindon Formation, the Slindon Sand member, comprising layers of gravel and sand, records near-shore marine conditions at the Boxgrove site. Above the Slindon Sand Member is the Slindon Silt Member, the main unit of archaeological and paleontological interest at site, which records the transition of the site from being underwater to emergent land, and consists of silt and an upper thin paleosol (preserved soil) layer, deposited in a temperate climate, which records a transition from mudflats (unit 4b) in the lower part of the member, up to a terrestrial grassland along with woodland and water pools (units 4c, 4d and 4u), subsequently transitioning upwards into a horizon of mineralized organics representing fen or carr (unit 5a). Above this lies clay and gravel deposits of the Eartham Lower Gravel Member, comprising cliff scree. This is covered by periglacial gravel deposits of the Eartham Upper Gravel Member (with both members being part of the Eartham Formation) deposited under cold arctic conditions.21-149
The Slindon Formation is thought to have been deposited during an episode of relatively high sea level. The Slindon Silt Member is dated to the interglacial period at the end of Marine Isotope Stage 13, around 480,000 years ago, based on biostratigraphic analysis of the species of mammal found at the site, with the Eartham Formation representing deposits of the subsequent Anglian glaciation during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 12. The fossiliferous terrestrial paleosol horizon of the Slindon Silt Member present at Boxgrove, though only relatively narrow at 30–250 metres (98–820 ft) wide, extends some distance from the site following an east-west axis along the base of the buried chalk cliff face, spanning 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) between Slindon Park and Adsdean Farm. Another site containing this horizon, Valdoe Quarry, 4.8 kilometres (3.0 mi) to the west of Boxgrove, has also yielded animal fossils and stone tools.
The site is important for many reasons, including the degree of preservation of ancient land surfaces, the impressive total extent of the palaeolandscape beyond the quarries (over 26 km wide), its huge quantity of well-preserved animal bones, its numerous flint artifacts, and its hominin fossils that are among some of the most ancient found yet in Europe. Several of the animal bones are the oldest found specimens of their species. The combination of bones, stone artifacts, and the geology of the landscape gives a very complete picture of the coastal plain as it existed half a million years ago.
Numerous species of animals, including snails, fish, lizards, amphibians including frogs and salamanders, and 50 species of mammals have been found at the site, many of which are still extant and a large subset of which still live in Britain today. Others, such as the European pine vole (Microtus subterraneus), which is one of the most common animals at the site, no longer inhabit Britain but are present in the European continental mainland. The site may contain the earliest record of the recently extinct Great auk (Pinguinus impennis).157-274 Remains of large animals have been found at the site, including rhinoceroses and indeterminate elephants (likely either the steppe mammoth Mammuthus trogontherii or the straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus).226,229 These include large carnivores, such as the grey wolf ancestor Canis mosbachensis, the large lion Panthera fossilis and Crocuta hyenas, originally attributed to the living spotted hyena (Crocuta spelaea),224 though other authors have argued that European Crocuta hyena remains from this time period should be attributed to the cave hyena (Crocuta spelaea). Several species of mammals found at the site became extinct during the Anglian glacial period that followed the deposition of the Boxgrove site, and are not present in the following Hoxnian interglacial (MIS 11) or later interglacials. These include Ursus deningeri (an early member of the cave bear lineage), members of the giant deer genus Praemegaceros, including the smaller British endemic P. dawkinsi and probably the larger P. verticornis, possibly the reindeer sized deer species Megaloceros/Praedama savini, the rhinoceros Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis, the extinct vole Pliomys episcopalis and the extinct long-tailed shrew Sorex savini. These taxa, in combination with archaic forms of the water vole (Arvicola) and narrow-headed vole (Stenocranius gregalis, which no longer occurs in Britain), constrain the age of the site to the end of Marine Isotope Stage 13.