The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

• 24 • Nicholas Barton
resemble the gradations on a ruler: these items have been variously interpreted as counting tallies,
lunar calendars, spacers, message sticks or simply as gaming pieces. Comparable notations have
been recorded on pieces of mammoth ivory from the same cave. The only example of figurative
art unquestionably connected with the Creswellian is the engraving of a horse on a rib fragment
from Robin Hood Cave (Figure 2.6), discovered in 1876. A similar example of an engraved horse
from Sherbourne (Dorset) has been discredited as a forgery (Stringer et al. 1995).
FINAL UPPER PALAEOLITHIC
Environmental background
In the second half of the Interstadial (equivalent to the Allerød, 12–11,000 BP), many British
pollen profiles show a marked expansion of birch (Betula sp.) (Walker et al. 1993). In western
Britain, closed birch woodland seems to have developed by about 11,700 BP (Walker and Harkness
1990). This development can be related to the gradual cooling trend detected after 12,500 BP
(Atkinson et al. 1987).
The evidence for climatic cooling and afforestation are not necessarily in conflict, because the
spread of birch may have been favoured by lower summer temperatures combined with moister
and less windy weather conditions (Walker et al. 1993). According to proxy data from beetle
faunas, mean July temperatures fell by up to 2°C (Coope and Lemdahl 1995). Potential evidence
for greater climatic instability during this period may be signalled by a clear interruption in the
birch curve and a minor increase in juniper between c.11,400–11,300 BP (Walker and Harkness
1990; Walker et al. 1993). Significantly, this oscillation seems to be closely matched by an episode
of marked cooling in the GISP-2 ice-core (Figure 2.1).
The second phase of the Lateglacial Interstadial thus appears to have been characterized by
the development of a woodland (birch and willow) landscape, probably with a mosaic of
herbaceous shrub and open grassland species, which seem to have persisted in some upland and
northern areas. Despite these vegetational changes, no great turnover of animal species is indicated
(see below). This period nevertheless saw the final disappearance of open steppe species such as
mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), which may have become extinct in western Europe at about
the same time (Street in Fagnart and Thevenin 1997). Amongst the large vertebrates found in
Britain dating to this period are red deer (Cervus elaphus), elk (Alces alces), a large bovid (Bos sp.) and
possibly roe deer (Capreolus capreolus). Wild horse (Equus ferus) became less common, while reindeer
(Rangifer tarandus), if it occurred at all, would have been confined to open tundra in the northern
uplands.
Material culture and technology
Lithic tool assemblages of this period are characterized by curve-backed points (pointes à dos
courbé) and curve-backed blades (lames/lamelles à dos courbé, couteaux à dos retouché). Another important
type fossil of the Final Upper Palaeolithic is the penknife point, a curve-backed point variant
with additional basal retouch (Figure 2.7). Also suspected of being contemporary are assemblages
where one or more of these types are present in combination with thick angle-backed points
(pointes à dos anguleux) and/or curve-backed bi-points (pointes aziliennes). Amongst the other retouched
tools present in Final Upper Palaeolithic assemblages are short end-scrapers (grattoirs courts), round
thumb-nail scrapers (unguiformes) and truncation burins. A selection of tool-types is illustrated in
Figure 2.7. The appearance of these industries is believed to coincide with the beginning of the
forested part of the Lateglacial Interstadial.