Boxgrove Dispatches

Lectures at Tautavel

2007-06-15T03:17:00.000-07:00

Mark Roberts and Matthew Pope were invited this year to present on the results of the Boxgrove excavations at Tautavel as part of Colloque International de tautavel "Les Culture a bifaces du Pleistocene inferieur et moyen dans les monde".

Speaking on biface reduction and landscape use respectively the papers will be presented in forthcoming proceedings from the conference.

Boxgrove Bifaces at The British Museum

2007-04-02T14:58:00.000-07:00

The Boxgrove Project would like to thank the team at Franks House (in particular Claire Fisher) for undertaking the final cataloguing and careful packing of the bifaces from the Q1/B waterhole site. In excess of 400 of these tools were measured, check against the inventory, re-marked and placed within indiidual place holders in drawers at the British Museum store.

Prior to packing, Claire Fisher laid out the tools for a chance to see them in their splendid totality. A truley astonishing site, the bifaces shown in this photograph represent an unparalelled collection of mint-condition tools, each one discarded within a discrete location during a fairly limited time span.

Valdoe Post-excavation Phase Begins

2007-01-15T14:56:00.000-08:00

Following a successful year of excavation at the Valdoe site we are now engaged in preparing for the Assessment Phase. During this stage of the project a team of specialists are brought together to work on different aspects of the recovered material (stone tools, fauna, pollen, ostracods) to assess the potential for further detailed analysis. Once the go-ahead is given the team will begin work on a small sample of material from the site and together we will build a case for further work if its considered warranted.

Palaeolandsurfaces Revealed in Extraction Area.

2006-11-01T14:55:00.000-08:00

As our test pits are opened up ahead of extraction they are revealing in-situ landsurfaces across the entire north-western part of the quarry. In each test pit small quantities of in-situ knapping debitage are present showing that this was an area actively occupied by Middle Pleistocene humans. Perhaps on the fringe of key hunting and butchery areas. We have yet to locate these in the Valdoe environs but the quantities of background evidence in the form of diffuse scatter of flakes makes their local presence a virtual certainty.

Valdoe Contingency Phase Begins

2006-10-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

English Heritage, through their administration of Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund, have given the go-ahead to the Valdoe Contingency Phase. This three-month project will work ahead of renewed extraction to sample sediments identified as containing in-situ archaeology in the north-western part of the Valdoe Quarry.The Contingency Project has provision for five archaeological test pits and a further five boreholes. Through these the nature of the sedimentary sequence, stone age archaeology and environmental character will be ascertained

Assessment Phase Ends

2006-06-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

The initial Assessment Phase of fieldwork has now finished. Since February a series of seven boreholes, five test pits and numerous exposure recordings have allowed us to accurately produce a detailed model of the geology in the Valdoe Quarry.We have been given an enormous amount of uninhibited access to the Quarry through the continued, kind permission of Dudmans LTD.As a result we are now able to predict where deposits containing archaeology and environmental indicators are luckily to be preserved. Should any further extraction take place we shall therefore be in a position to develop a suitable plan for mitigation/rescue.

In-Situ Artefacts Found

2006-04-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

Test Pits 5 and 6 have both produced in situ artefacts this week. At both localities we now have definite evidence for a human presence in the form of small quantities of late stage biface thinning debitage. The evidence, combined with local surface finds of handaxes and further artefacts in the overlying Head Deposits, suggests the habitual use of the Lavant Valley mouth during the same period that Boxgrove was occupied. Unless behaviour was significantly different in this context, the evidence suggests the likelihood of larger, more intensively occupied locales are present within the vicinity of the Valdoe.

Excavations with Worthing Archaeological Society

2006-03-27T14:50:00.000-08:00

The project is extremely thankful to Worthing Archaeological Society who participated in fieldwork at the Valdoe during late March and early April. Under the daily supervision of Pat Jones (Sussex University) Jill, Pete, Bob, Keith and the rest of the team quickly got to grips with deep Pleistocene excavation, hours of daily bailing-out and metres of largely barren geology with good humour and professionalism. The reward for their toil was the discovery of in-situ material within the newly identified palaeolandsurface and the first chance anyone has had to see and excavate an extensive area of the Boxgrove palaeolandsurface in almost a decade.After the success of this field season, we hope to collaborate with Worthing Archaeological Society on future projects.

Palaeolandsurface Identified

2006-02-28T14:49:00.000-08:00

In line with expectations, the Boxgrove palaeolandsurface has been located in the Northern part of the Quarry, an area potentially under threat during the new phase of extraction. These sediments are identical to those which have produced in-situ archaeology, human remains and butchered animals carcasses dating to over half a million years old at Boxgrove.Now that this key horizon has been identified surviving within the Valdoe Quarry a plan can begin to be formulated to mitigate against any extraction work which impacts upon it.

Extraction of the old Haul Road begins

2006-02-28T14:46:00.000-08:00

There are two areas within the Valdoe Quarry where renewed extraction may impact upon the Boxgrove palaeolandscape. One lies beneath the old north-south haul road which cuts through the eastern part of the quarry.This week the first phase of extraction began here, removing the overlying decalcified gravels, or Hoggin, and exposing the underlying calcareous coombe rock. Within the next few weeks it should be possible to determine the actual distribution of the landsurface within this area.

Valdoe Assessment Survey begins

2006-02-26T00:02:00.000-08:00

The Valdoe Quarry lies on the Goowood Estate, near Chichester in West Susssex. Topographically it occupies an almost identical position to the Boxgrove sites although it lies some 6km to the west. Between 2001 and 2003 the Raised Beach Mapping Project identified the presence of archaeologically sensitive deposits across the Goodwood Estate identical to those preserving half million year old bucthery sites and human remains at Boxgrove.

Throughout 2006 a new project, funded by DEFRA through the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund, has been established to determine the full extent of the palaeolandsurfaces within the vicinity of the Quarry, to determine the degree to which the Quarry has impacted upon the these deposits and to develop a plan for future mitigation should Quarry work begin to impact upon surviving areas of palaeolandsurface.

The Project, which commence in Jan 2006, represents a unique level of cooperation in Sussex between the Goodwood Estate, Dudmans, West Sussex County Council, English Heritage and DEFRA through the ALSF. Over the course of the project the latest news and results can be followed here.

Boreholing Phase Commences

2006-02-18T14:48:00.000-08:00

In order to determine the presence of the Boxgrove palaeolandsurface within the threatened areas of the Quarry a series of boreholes will be sunk this week to map the subsurface geology. A team from West Wight Drilling have been hired to undertake this work using a standard Dando percussion rig. 5-6 boreholes should be all that is required to create, when combined with exisiting data sets, a local geological model of the area.

Valdoe Topographic Survey

2006-01-01T14:25:00.000-08:00

With the aid of Mark Tibble (Archaeology South East), an initial topographic survey of the Valdoe Quarry was undertaken. The aim of the survey was to provide an accurate and up-to-date snapshot of the quarry topography and layout prior to the commencing of any new extraction. In addition the survey provided a series of benchmarks around the quarry perimeter, these will allow the subsequent accurate surveying of boreholes, test pits and new extraction areas. The survey was extended beyond the perimeter of the quarry to tie into the surrounding landscape.The survey was undertaken using Leica GPS equipment which, given the open conditions of the quarry, was immensely more efficient than using a total station. The surveying marked the first phase of fieldwork in the Valdoe Assessment Survey, an occasion marked auspiciously by a Spitfire fly-past from the nearby Goodwood airfield at the close of play on the first day.

Pakefield Discoveries

2005-12-16T01:06:00.000-08:00

Nature this week announced the discovery of a 700,000 year old artefact assemblage from deposits at Pakefield, on the Suffolk Coast.(http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7070/index.html)The Leverhulme funded AHOB investigations at the site were led by Simon Parfitt, the Boxgrove faunal specialist.

The new evidence suggests that humans were able to occupy Northern Europe for at least short periods of time before more established occupations occurred in MIS 13 and 11.

The Gilbard Exotic Rediscovered at Aldingbourne

2005-11-22T15:18:00.000-08:00

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

2005-11-16T15:04:00.000-08:00

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

2005-11-03T07:41:00.000-08:00

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.

Chichester Conservation Volunteers

2005-10-23T15:27:00.000-07:00

Chichester Conservation Volunteers helped with the autumn management of the Boxgrove site this month.

Butchery Experiments with Reading University

2005-09-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

Anna Machin (Reading University) is currently running experiments in animal butchery using bifacial stone tool. This week Matthew Pope helped in these experiments by systematically using bifaces to skin, quarter and joint a number of deer carcasses. The resulting video and transcriptions will be used to analyse the effectiveness of different bifacial edges and to test the overall significance of symmetry in the process.

The work looks set to provide some important insight into the way in which these tools were used in the past. Certainly it has already changed some of our perceptions and assumptions on the tool.

New water supply coming to Boxgrove

2005-09-15T07:44:00.000-07:00

While last month saw the final reconnection of power (absent since the restoration work) into the Boxgrove Quarry, this week it was announced that a new high pressure water main would be connected to the Boxgrove site. This work will be funded by English Heritage, it will ensure that next years field work project can be based at the Quarry and that the work-horse of our palaeo-environmental sampling programme, the Vole Machine, can once again be put into action.

Bone Modification Experiments

2005-08-26T00:40:00.000-07:00

This week the project played host to Bill Boismier (Lynford Project Director) and Geoff Smith (UCL). They undertook a series of bone modification experiments at the site, the results of which will be utilised in the further analysis of faunal material from the Late Plesitocene site of Lynford.

Ann Clark Visit

2005-08-12T00:43:00.000-07:00

Ann Clark, our Field Monument Warden (English Heritage) visited the Boxgrove site to inspect our clearance work on the Devils Ditch and to assess the potential for extending the boundaries of the site to include the entire width of the monument.

The Devils Ditch is an Iron Age entrenchment which stretches for several kilometres across the northern part of the coastal plain. It is part of a network of similar fortifications which probably relate to a late Iron Age Oppida (Proto-urban development) in the Chichester area. Currently around 200m of the formidable ditch and part of the bank lie within our boundary and we have begun to manage and protect the monument through scrub clearance.

It is hope that eventually the boundary can be changed to include the entire width of the field monument, therefore taking in the entirety of the bank, within our site.

Great Pan Farm

2005-07-06T12:18:00.000-07:00

During late June 2005 the project undertook an assessment of fields surrounding the Middle Palaeolithic site of great Pan Farm on the Isle of Wight. The site is one of national importance having produced a flint tool assemblage of Middle Palaeolithic character including Levallois flakes and Bout Coupe bifaces (Poole 1925; Shackley 1973 and 1981)asscoaietd with the ifrst terrace of the medina river system. An assessment of the site earlier this year by Dr Francis Wenban-Smith and Dr Martin Bates did not identify any deposits of Medina Terrace 1 within the study area. However they were able to map the presence of at least two additional higher terraces across the fields to the east of the site (Medina 3 & Medina 4). The deposits included gravels containing occasional worked pieces.

The Boxgrove Projects team, working in association with Archaeology South-East, widened the scope of the investigation and identified a further, higher terrace (Medina 4). Additionally they were able to locate deposits of Terrace 1 to the west of the site, including a distinctive organic bed which may be that noted by Poole. This bed contained large elements of plant macrofossils which may provide dating evidence. Apart from a very small number of undiagnostic flakes, no significant tool assemblages were recovered.
The study has shown that the Great Pan Site forms part of a much wider series of fluvial deposits preserving a depositional history of the Medina valley over a period in excess of 200,000 years. Deposits which produced the important Middle Palaeolithic assemblage have been shown to be present in the vicinity of the site and have the potential to yield important contextual information for the original finds. Further post-excavation analysis and follow-up field work by the Project tereforelooks set to greatly improve our understanding of this site.

Searcher he outcome justified the search

Earnley Investigation

2005-06-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

During mid June 2005 the project teamed up with Dr Martin Bates (Lampeter University) to try to locate the Earnley Channel on the West Sussex Coast. Trial trenching at low tide with a JCB successfully identified both edges of the channel as well as providing a section through the deepest parts of the channel. The deposits were not that thickly buried below the sand and the holes remained dry throughout the investigation, The fieldwork was constrained only by the very short low-tide window available for moving machinery onto the foreshore and the effects of large storms sweeping the Solent and causing a surge tide.

Samples for OSL dating, micropal and pollen analysis were taken in addition to samples of the exotic clasts from the channel gravel. The analysis of these samples will possibly clarify our understanding about the nature of the channel and its age.

Boxgrove lectures at the British Musuem

2005-02-19T05:43:00.000-08:00

Two lectures covering the latest research on the Boxgrove hominin locality will be presented at this years Palaeolithic-Mesolithic Day Meeting (British Musuem 10-11th March). Matt Pope and Kate Russell will be talking on aspects of the analysis of stone tool assemblages from the Q1/B site, while Mark Roberts and Simon Parfitt will be presentng the results of studies on the faunal assemblage.