https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.211904
On the earliest Acheulean in Britain: first dates and in-situ artefacts
from the MIS 15 site of Fordwich (Kent, UK)
Abstract
Northern Europe experienced cycles of hominin habitation and
absence during the Middle Pleistocene. Fluvial gravel terrace sites
in the east of Britain and north of France provide a majority of the
data contributing to this understanding, mostly through the presence
or absence of stone-tool artefacts. To date, however, relatively few
sites have been radiometrically dated, and many have not been
excavated in modern times, leading to an over-reliance on selectively sampled and poorly dated lithic assemblages. This includes Fordwich
(Kent, UK), where over 330 bifaces were discovered through industrial quarrying in the 1920s. Here, we present the first excavation and
dating of artefacts discovered in situ at Fordwich, alongside their technological analysis and relationship to those previously recovered.
The site is demonstrated to retain deposits of Lower Palaeolithic
artefacts, with 251 flakes, scrapers and cores identified to date. Infrared-radiofluorescence (IR-RF) dating of feldspar reveals 112
artefacts to have come from levels dating to at least 570 ± 36 to
513 ± 30 thousand years ago (ka) and are most plausibly assigned to
an MIS 14 deposition, with artefacts produced during MIS 15 (approx. 560–620 ka). Indeed, these IR-RF samples provide minimum ages for artefacts. Combined with evidence from exposures linked to the
original quarrying activities, a similar MIS 15 age is suggested for the more than 330 handaxe artefacts discovered in the 1920s. The
remaining excavated artefacts come from levels dated to between
347 ± 22 and 385 ± 21 ka (MIS 10 or 11), with this later age
interpreted to reflect post-MIS 14 deposition by substrate gullying
and solifluction. These data demonstrate Fordwich to be one of the
earliest Palaeolithic sites in northwestern Europe, and to retain the
only large Acheulean handaxe assemblage directly dated to
pre-MIS 13. Thus, Fordwich is determined to be a crucial piece of
the pre-Anglian Palaeolithic puzzle in northern Europe.
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