Human occupation of northern Europe in MIS 13: Happisburgh Site 1 (Norfolk, UK) and its European context
| Autor: | Herman J. Mücher, Monika Knul, Peter G. Hoare, Mark Jan Sier, Nick Ashton, Hans Kamermans, Simon G. Lewis, Wil Roebroeks, Michael H. Field, Simon A. Parfitt |
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| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
010506 paleontology
Archeology Global and Planetary Change Marsh geography.geographical_feature_category Handaxe 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Pleistocene Floodplain Geology Context (language use) Cromer Forest-bed Formation 01 natural sciences Archaeology Swamp Europe Sedimentary depositional environment Geography MIS 13 Period (geology) Glacial period Lower Palaeolithic Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics 0105 earth and related environmental sciences |
| Zdroj: | Quaternary Science Reviews Quaternary Science Reviews, 211, 34-58 |
| ISSN: | 0277-3791 |
| Popis: | The timing, environmental setting and archaeological signatures of an early human presence in northernEurope have been longstanding themes of Palaeolithic research. In the space of 20 years, the earliestrecord of human occupation in Britain has been pushed back from 500 ka (Boxgrove) to 700 ka (Pakefield)and then to >800 ka (Happisburgh Site 3). Other sites also contribute to this record of humanoccupation; a second locality at Happisburgh, referred to as Site 1, attests to human presence at around500 ka (MIS 13). This paper provides the first comprehensive account of research undertaken at HappisburghSite 1 since 2000. The early human landscape and depositional environment was that of a riverfloodplain, where an active river channel, in which a grey sand was deposited, was abandoned, forming afloodplain lake, with marginal marsh/swamp environments, which was infilled with organic mud. Thissuccession is sealed by Middle Pleistocene glacial deposits. An assemblage of 199 flint flakes, flake toolsand cores was recovered from the grey sand and organic mud. The evidence from Happisburgh Site 1 isplaced in the context of the wider British and European MIS 13 record. The growing evidence for asignificant dispersal of humans into northern Europe around 500 ka raises critical questions concerningthe environmental conditions under which this took place. We also consider the evolutionary andbehavioural changes in human populations that might have enabled the more widespread and persistentperiod of human presence in northern Europe at this time. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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