I'll have the roast duck, with mango salsa.
Posted on 06/23/2008 9:58:11 AM PDT by decimon
23 June 2008
An archaeological excavation at a site near Pulborough, West Sussex, has thrown remarkable new light on the life of northern Europe’s last Neanderthals. It provides a snapshot of a thriving, developing population – rather than communities on the verge of extinction.
“The tools we’ve found at the site are technologically advanced and potentially older than tools in Britain belonging to our own species, Homo sapiens,” says Dr Matthew Pope of Archaeology South East based at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. “It’s exciting to think that there’s a real possibility these were left by some of the last Neanderthal hunting groups to occupy northern Europe. The impression they give is of a population in complete command of both landscape and natural raw materials with a flourishing technology - not a people on the edge of extinction.”
The team, led by Dr Pope and funded by English Heritage, is undertaking the first modern, scientific investigation of the site since its original discovery in 1900. During the construction of a monumental house known as ‘Beedings’ some 2,300 perfectly preserved stone tools were removed from fissures encountered in the foundation trenches.
Only recently were the tools recognised for their importance. Research by Roger Jacobi of the Leverhulme-funded Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) Project showed conclusively that the Beedings material has strong affinities with other tools from northern Europe dating back to between 35,000 and 42,000 years ago. The collection of tools from Beedings is more diverse and extensive than any other found in the region and therefore offers the best insight into the technologically advanced cultures which occupied Northern Europe before the accepted appearance of our own species.
“Dr Jacobi’s work showed the clear importance of the site,” says Dr Pope. “The exceptional collection of tools appears to represent the sophisticated hunting kit of Neanderthal populations which were only a few millennia from complete disappearance in the region. Unlike earlier, more typical Neanderthal tools these were made with long, straight blades - blades which were then turned into a variety of bone and hide processing implements, as well as lethal spear points.
“There were some questions about the validity of the earlier find, but our excavations have proved beyond doubt that the material discovered here was genuine and originated from fissures within the local sandstone. We also discovered older, more typical Neanderthal tools, deeper in the fissure. Clearly, Neanderthal hunters were drawn to the hill over a long period time, presumably for excellent views of the game-herds grazing on the plains below the ridge.”
The excavations suggest the site may not be unique. Similar sites with comparable fissure systems are thought to exist across south east England. The project now aims to prospect more widely across the region for similar sites.
Barney Sloane, Head of Historic Environment Commissions at English Heritage, said: “Sites such as this are extremely rare and a relatively little considered archaeological resource. Their remains sit at a key watershed in the evolutionary history of northern Europe. The tools at Beedings could equally be the signature of pioneer populations of modern humans, or traces of the last Neanderthal hunting groups to occupy the region. This study offers a rare chance to answer some crucial questions about just how technologically advanced Neanderthals were, and how they compare with our own species.”
The project, which has been running with the assistance of the landowners since February 2008, has been directed by Dr Matthew Pope of UCL and Caroline Wells of Sussex Archaeological Society, working closely with specialists from the Boxgrove Project and the Worthing Archaeological Society.
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For further press information please contact Dave Weston in the UCL Press Office on +44 20 7679 7678 or email d.weston@ucl.ac.uk
Images of the Beedings site and some of the tools which were recovered are available by contacting the UCL Press Office (see above).
Note to editors:
The true importance of the Beedings site was not recognised until the 1980s when Dr Roger Jacobi of the British Museum showed that the collection of flint tools contained large numbers of long, straight-sided blades which had been thinned at each end, possibly to allow hafting. The presence of tools damaged through high-velocity impact suggested they were used as spear tips. Jacobi interpreted the site as a hunting camp where game herds could be clearly observed and kit repaired in anticipation of the next kill. Jacobi’s work showed that the flint tools from Beedings were technologically similar to those from a number of north European sites. These sites are distributed from Devon, England in the West across the north European Plain to Nietoperzowa Cave, Poland. They possibly date to 38,000 years ago. Dr Jacobi’s paper can be found in the current issue of Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society.
About UCL:
Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government’s most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence.
UCL is in the top ten world universities in the 2007 THES-QS World University Rankings, and the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2007 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Marie Stopes, Jonathan Dimbleby, Lord Woolf, Alexander Graham Bell, and members of the band Coldplay.
Tea time ping.
They also played canasta, took they Scotch neat, and always said “quite”
I believe they founded the Labour Party, didn’t they?
But, did Neanderthals give equal rights to same-sex couples, and did they limit their carbon footprints? And what about that hunting; did they use only properly registered weapons, and remember to use trigger locks when not in use?
You beat me to it!
Interesting. Quite. I know a few British Neanderthals.
I'll have the roast duck, with mango salsa.
LOL!! And they apparently had video cameras to boot!
***Interesting. Quite. I know a few British Neanderthals.**
I’ll bet they won’t admit that they know you;)
****It provides a snapshot of a thriving, developing population – rather than communities on the verge of extinction.***
As history repeats itself - in the 21st Century!
Neanderthals’ not so neanderthal
Me, I always suspected those BeeGees myself! ;-)
I’m not sure how they can say these are late Neanderthal tools and not early human tools.
And then Uggore convinced them that they were going to destroy the world by chipping it all away. A cap-and-trade tax was imposed on flint. Without spear and arrowheads, with no knives or fire strikers they huddled in their caves, naked, cold and hungry until the end came.
And evil homo-republicanus laughed. The end.
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