The Boxgrove Palaeolithic site is an internationally important
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
site
Site most often refers to:
* Archaeological site
* Campsite, a place used for overnight stay in an outdoor area
* Construction site
* Location, a point or an area on the Earth's surface or elsewhere
* Website, a set of related web pages, typical ...
north-east of
Boxgrove
Boxgrove is a village, parish, ecclesiastical parish and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Chichester (district), Chichester District of the English county of West Sussex, about north east of the city of Chichester. The village is ...
in
West Sussex
West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...
with findings that date to the
Lower Palaeolithic
The Lower Paleolithic (or Lower Palaeolithic) is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 3.3 million years ago when the first evidence for stone tool production and use by hominins appears ...
. The oldest human remains in Britain have been discovered on the site, fossils of ''
Homo heidelbergensis
''Homo heidelbergensis'' is a species of archaic human from the Middle Pleistocene of Europe and Africa, as well as potentially Asia depending on the taxonomic convention used. The species-level classification of ''Homo'' during the Middle Pleis ...
'' dating to 500,000 years ago.
[ 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 geological ]Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...
, as well as a Geological Conservation Review
The Geological Conservation Review (GCR) is produced by the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee. It is designed to identify those sites of national and international importance needed to show all the key scientific elements of the geological ...
site.
Other key Palaeolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...
sites in the UK include Swanscombe
Swanscombe /ˈswɔnzkəm/ is a town in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is 4.4 miles west of Gravesend and 4.8 miles east of Dartford.
History
Prehistory
Bone fragments and to ...
, Pontnewydd
Pontnewydd is a suburb of Cwmbran in the county borough of Torfaen, south-east Wales. It should not be confused with Pontnewynydd in nearby Pontypool.
An 18th century settlement within the historical parish of Llanfrechfa Upper, Pontnewydd b ...
, Kents Cavern
Kents Cavern is a cave system in Torquay, Devon, England. It is notable both for its archaeological and geological features (as a karst feature in the Devonian limestone). The cave system is open to the public and has been a geological Site of S ...
, Paviland
The Red "Lady" of Paviland () is an Upper Paleolithic partial male skeleton dyed in red ochre and buried in Wales 33,000 BP (approximately 31,000 BCE). The bones were discovered in 1823 by William Buckland in an archaeological dig at Goat's Hol ...
, and Gough's Cave.
The site is close to a fossil shoreline that has interglacial mammal fauna in intertidal sediments. 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
University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...
. 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.
History
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
The Hominini (hominins) form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae (hominines). They comprise two extant genera: ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos), and in standard usage exclude the genus '' Gorilla'' ( gorillas) ...
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, such as the wing bone of the great auk
The great auk (''Pinguinus impennis''), also known as the penguin or garefowl, is an Extinction, extinct species of flightless bird, flightless auk, alcid that first appeared around 400,000 years ago and Bird extinction, became extinct in the ...
found at the site in 1989. 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 Acheulean
Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated with ''Homo ...
flint tool
Stone tools have been used throughout human history but are most closely associated with prehistoric cultures and in particular those of the Stone Age. Stone tools may be made of either ground stone or knapped stone, the latter fashioned by a c ...
s and remains of animals dating to approximately 500,000 years ago were found at the site. Some of the bones of roe deer, rhinoceros (''Stephanorhinus
''Stephanorhinus'' is an extinct genus of two-horned rhinoceros native to Eurasia and North Africa that lived during the Late Pliocene to Late Pleistocene. Species of ''Stephanorhinus'' were the predominant and often only species of rhinoceros in ...
'') and horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...
were found to display cut marks, and some of the tools bear use wear traces indicative of cutting meat, indicating that the site was used for butchery by some of the earliest occupants of the British Isles
The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...
. They shared the area with a wide variety of animals whose bones have been found there, including lion, bear (''Ursus deningeri
''Ursus deningeri'' (Deninger's bear) is an extinct species of bear, endemic to Eurasia during the Pleistocene for approximately 1.7 million years, from . The range of this bear has been found to encompass both Europe and Asia, demonstrating the ...
''), ''Hippopotamus
The hippopotamus (''Hippopotamus amphibius;'' ; : hippopotamuses), often shortened to hippo (: hippos), further qualified as the common hippopotamus, Nile hippopotamus and river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Sahar ...
'' and giant deer (''Praemegaceros
''Praemegaceros'' is an extinct genus of deer, known from the Pleistocene and Holocene of Western Eurasia. ''Praemegaceros'' is considered to be a genus of "giant deer", with many species having an estimated body mass of around , considerably lar ...
''), as well as numerous smaller animals such as frog, voles (''Microtus
''Microtus'' is a genus of voles found in North America, Europe and northern Asia. The genus name refers to the small ears of these animals. They are stout rodents with short ears, legs and tails. They eat green vegetation such as grasses and se ...
'', ''Arvicola
Water voles are large voles in the genus ''Arvicola''. They are found in both aquatic and dry habitat through Europe and much of northern Asia. A water vole found in Western North America was historically considered a member of this genus, but ...
'' ''Pliomys
''Pliomys'' is an extinct genus of voles, subfamily Arvicolinae, tribe Pliomyini.Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. pp. 894–1531 ''in'' Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wi ...
''), and birds. Comparison with ethnographic and experimental examples of stone-tool-assisted butchery has shown that game animals at Boxgrove were butchered expertly, and it is likely that the variety of animal life in the area attracted human hunters.
Evidence for hunting is, however, tentative, consisting primarily of a horse shoulder blade with a semicircular hole that has been interpreted as the mark of a projectile impact. Given that wooden spears decay very quickly, it is no surprise that no hunting equipment has been found on the site. As well, it is a fact that wooden spears do not generally cause great damage to the bony areas of impact such as the pelvis. Thus, the horse shoulder blade mark is a rare piece of evidence of hunting activity.
Remains of an archaic human
''Homo'' () is a genus of great ape (family Hominidae) that emerged from the genus ''Australopithecus'' and encompasses only a single extant species, ''Homo sapiens'' (modern humans), along with a number of extinct species (collectively called ...
provisionally thought to be a member of the ''Homo heidelbergensis
''Homo heidelbergensis'' is a species of archaic human from the Middle Pleistocene of Europe and Africa, as well as potentially Asia depending on the taxonomic convention used. The species-level classification of ''Homo'' during the Middle Pleis ...
'' subspecies were first found on the site in 1993, comprising the partial tibia
The tibia (; : tibiae or tibias), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two Leg bones, bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outsi ...
of a human who probably stood 1.8m high and weighed approximately 80 kg. Significantly, this is the only postcranial element of ''Homo heidelbergensis'' to have been found in northern Europe (postcranial indicates bones coming from anywhere other than the skull, considered the top or leading bone of the body). The tibia is extremely robust for its size and may be an indication of high running activity, presumably in tracking an animal after it has been speared. Cold adaptation is another possible reason for the robust quality. Both ends of the bone show signs of gnawing, possibly by a wolf
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, includin ...
, suggesting that perhaps the Boxgrove hominids were sometimes prey to other animals. In 1995 two incisor
Incisors (from Latin ''incidere'', "to cut") are the front teeth present in most mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and on the mandible below. Humans have a total of eight (two on each side, top and bottom). Opossums have 18, wher ...
teeth from another individual hominid were found. These show evidence of severe periodontal disease and they also show tool cut marks, which are thought to have been caused by use of flint tools near the mouth rather than indicating cannibalism.
In 2003 English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...
announced it would buy the western quarry (known as Quarry 1) to ensure the preservation of the site complex.
In August 2020 archaeologists said they had discovered the earliest bone tools ever found in Europe at the site. They said that it provides further evidence that early human populations at Boxgrove were cognitively, socially, and culturally sophisticated.
Excavation history
The Boxgrove site was first discovered by the archaeologist Andrew Woodcock and the geologist Roy Shephard-Thorn in 1974. During the first stages of gravel extraction, their investigations showed a series of marine deposits, overlain by gravels, were preserved within the quarry. Woodcock recorded exceptionally well preserved Acheulean artefacts and mammalian fauna at the intersection between these sediments and determined the potential importance of the site.
Between 1982 and 1996 a series of excavations were undertaken at the site by the UCL Institute of Archaeology with funding from Historic England. The excavations were directed by Mark Roberts of the UCL Institute of Archaeology, with successive co-direction by Martin Bates and Simon Parfitt.
In 2011, Roberts told interviewers from the student-produced archaeological magazine ''Artifact'' that Boxgrove was "a fickle mistress indeed" and that whilst he wouldn't change his experience in investigating the site, the excavations "extracted a very heavy price" from him, "a price that I am only just at the point of paying the final instalment on". For this reason he found that he often hummed The Specials
The Specials, also known as the Special AKA, were an English 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, J ...
' 1979 song " Too Much Too Young" to himself when thinking about the project.
Publication
In addition to over twenty scientific papers, the site is published through two monographs:
Boxgrove: A Middle Pleistocene Hominid Site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove, West Sussex. Edited by Mark Roberts and Simon Parfit
Boxgrove: A Middle Pleistocene hominid site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove, West Sussex
is now available through the Archaeology Data Service.
The Horse Butchery Site: A High Resolution Record of Lower Palaeolithic Hominin Behaviour at Boxgrove, UK. Edited by Matthew Pope, Simon Parfitt and Mark Roberts.
In 1998, Roberts co-wrote a book about the site with prehistoric archaeologist Mike Pitts
Michael Anthony Pitts (September 25, 1960 – November 4, 2021) was an American professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for twelve seasons during the 1980s and 1990s. He played college footb ...
that is entitled ''Fairweather Eden: Life in Britain half a million years ago as revealed by the excavations at Boxgrove''. Published by Arrow Books
Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the follow ...
, ''Fairweather Eden'' was designed for a popular audience.
See also
* Gough's Cave
* Genetic history of the British Isles
Genetic may refer to:
*Genetics, in biology, the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms
**Genetic, used as an adjective, refers to genes
***Genetic disorder, any disorder caused by a genetic mutation, whether inherited or de nov ...
* Happisburgh
Happisburgh () is a village civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is on the coast, to the east of a north–south road, the B1159 from Bacton on the coast to Stalham. It is a nucleated village. The nearest substantial ...
* Kents Cavern
Kents Cavern is a cave system in Torquay, Devon, England. It is notable both for its archaeological and geological features (as a karst feature in the Devonian limestone). The cave system is open to the public and has been a geological Site of S ...
* List of human evolution fossils
The following tables give an overview of notable finds of Hominini, hominin fossils and Skeleton, remains relating to human evolution, beginning with the formation of the tribe Hominini (the divergence of the Chimpanzee–human last common ancest ...
* List of prehistoric structures in Great Britain
There are many prehistoric sites and structures of interest remaining from prehistoric Britain, spanning the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. Among the most important are the Wiltshire sites around Stonehenge and Avebury, which are designate ...
* Prehistoric Britain
Several species of humans have intermittently occupied Great Britain for almost a million years. The earliest evidence of human occupation around 900,000 years ago is at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast, with stone tools and footprints prob ...
* Paviland
The Red "Lady" of Paviland () is an Upper Paleolithic partial male skeleton dyed in red ochre and buried in Wales 33,000 BP (approximately 31,000 BCE). The bones were discovered in 1823 by William Buckland in an archaeological dig at Goat's Hol ...
* Pontnewydd
Pontnewydd is a suburb of Cwmbran in the county borough of Torfaen, south-east Wales. It should not be confused with Pontnewynydd in nearby Pontypool.
An 18th century settlement within the historical parish of Llanfrechfa Upper, Pontnewydd b ...
* Swanscombe
Swanscombe /ˈswɔnzkəm/ is a town in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is 4.4 miles west of Gravesend and 4.8 miles east of Dartford.
History
Prehistory
Bone fragments and to ...
References
;Footnotes
;Bibliography
*
*
External links
{{Homo heidelbergensis, state=collapsed
History of West Sussex
Stone Age sites in England
Archaeological sites in West Sussex
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in West Sussex
Paleoanthropological sites
Paleolithic Europe
Geological Conservation Review sites