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Interesting find... unusual place!
I went to visit my elderly mother in North Norfolk recently and we took a little trip out to a venue where local artisans were selling their wares. Cider-makers, bakers, potters, leather-workers, home-made preserves and such. There was a guy selling beautiful carved wooden items and sitting on his table was a box of flattish stones with the label: “Your name engraved: £6.50”. The conversation went something like this:
- Excuse me, but could I just ask where these stones came from?
# Off the beach at West Runton. They wash out of the cliffs and I pick up the ones that have a flat enough surface to engrave.
- How much do you want for this one?
# It’s £6.50 to have your name engraved on it, like the label says.
- I just want the stone. Not engraved.
# OK… but I can engrave it if you want.
- Well, I’d rather have it just as it is. It’s a Lower Palaeolithic tool. They’re not tremendously valuable, but I collect them.
# Really? Are you sure? What about the others?
- They’re just flat stones. This one is different. The edges are worked. It’s a chopping tool.
# Well, I guess I should put the price up then [laughs heartily], but you can have it for £6.
- Deal. Thanks very much.
Here it is:
Unfortunately, it’s archaeological value is limited since there is no relevant stratigraphy, but it almost certainly came out of the till deposits relating to one of the Cromerian Complex interglacial periods which (in Britain) started around 866,000 years ago and ended 478,000 years ago.
The archaeological significance of this area of Britain has only been recently recognised. The coastline suffers from considerable erosion and that has gradually exposed deposits where lithic tools have been found in intact stratigraphy with associated organic material that can be carbon-dated. In 2010, at nearby Happisburgh, Parfitt et al from University College London recovered tools from deposits that were dated (by other techniques) to either 866,000 - 814,000 years ago or 970,000 - 936,000 years ago. Subsequent excavations co-ordinated by Chris Stringer led to the discovery in 2013 of the oldest hominin footprints outside Africa, dated to more than 800,000 years old.
All of this pushes back the known occupation of Britain by at least 280,000 years (preceding the Clactonian industries of Homo erectus). The evidence suggests that the tools were made by Homo antecessor (which was perhaps the evolutionary link between H. ergaster and H. heidelbergensis) living as hunter-gatherers on the flood plains and marshlands that bordered the northern banks of an ancient course of the river Thames.
Collectively this represents the oldest evidence of human activity in Northern Europe and raises some interesting questions about whether these people had physical adaptations, hunting techniques or technologies (types of clothing, construction of shelters, use of fire etc) that allowed them to live much further north than previously considered possible in the still very cold interglacial periods. Seasonal migration may also have played a part if it can be established whether the sites were continuously occupied or not.
- Excuse me, but could I just ask where these stones came from?
# Off the beach at West Runton. They wash out of the cliffs and I pick up the ones that have a flat enough surface to engrave.
- How much do you want for this one?
# It’s £6.50 to have your name engraved on it, like the label says.
- I just want the stone. Not engraved.
# OK… but I can engrave it if you want.
- Well, I’d rather have it just as it is. It’s a Lower Palaeolithic tool. They’re not tremendously valuable, but I collect them.
# Really? Are you sure? What about the others?
- They’re just flat stones. This one is different. The edges are worked. It’s a chopping tool.
# Well, I guess I should put the price up then [laughs heartily], but you can have it for £6.
- Deal. Thanks very much.
Here it is:
Unfortunately, it’s archaeological value is limited since there is no relevant stratigraphy, but it almost certainly came out of the till deposits relating to one of the Cromerian Complex interglacial periods which (in Britain) started around 866,000 years ago and ended 478,000 years ago.
The archaeological significance of this area of Britain has only been recently recognised. The coastline suffers from considerable erosion and that has gradually exposed deposits where lithic tools have been found in intact stratigraphy with associated organic material that can be carbon-dated. In 2010, at nearby Happisburgh, Parfitt et al from University College London recovered tools from deposits that were dated (by other techniques) to either 866,000 - 814,000 years ago or 970,000 - 936,000 years ago. Subsequent excavations co-ordinated by Chris Stringer led to the discovery in 2013 of the oldest hominin footprints outside Africa, dated to more than 800,000 years old.
All of this pushes back the known occupation of Britain by at least 280,000 years (preceding the Clactonian industries of Homo erectus). The evidence suggests that the tools were made by Homo antecessor (which was perhaps the evolutionary link between H. ergaster and H. heidelbergensis) living as hunter-gatherers on the flood plains and marshlands that bordered the northern banks of an ancient course of the river Thames.
Collectively this represents the oldest evidence of human activity in Northern Europe and raises some interesting questions about whether these people had physical adaptations, hunting techniques or technologies (types of clothing, construction of shelters, use of fire etc) that allowed them to live much further north than previously considered possible in the still very cold interglacial periods. Seasonal migration may also have played a part if it can be established whether the sites were continuously occupied or not.
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