The Gilbard Exotic Rediscovered at Aldingbourne

The Gilbard Exotic, a large boulder of rock alien to Sussex has been relocated by Mark Roberts south of the Brighton-Norton Raised Beach in the parish of Aldingbourne. While cobbles of non-local rock are found in both the Aldingbourne and Boxgrove raised beaches, this is the most northerly large boulder yet discovered. On-going work by the project aims to understand the origin of these rocks.

John Whittaker's retirement

The Boxgrove Project would like to wish John Whittaker a happy retirement. Pictured here at John's retirement party are (from left to right) Simon Parfitt, Matthew Pope, Martin Bates, John Whittaker, Mark Roberts and Francis Wenban-Smith.

Prim Tech 2005

Matthew Pope and Geoff Smith contributed to Prim Tech again this year. Experiments in spear manufacture and impact were undertaken on Fallow Deer carcasses and student were taught how to make rudimentary stone tools and use them to butcher the animals. The meat helped to feed the 70 odd staff and students camped in Sussex for the weekend, undertaking experiments in activities such as copper smelting, foraging, hut building, flute making and textile production.




The spear experiments showed that the penetration potential of wooden projectile was significantly less than we had previously anticipated. Future experiments are now being developed to explore variables such as wood type, technique, velocity and point configuration.