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

The Lateglacial colonization of Britain
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That the pattern of raw material use in the Final Upper Palaeolithic may be part of a much
wider phenomenon is suggested by observations made in the contemporary continental record.
In west-central Germany, for example, the Federmessergruppen sites, unlike those of the Magdalenian,
are characterized by artefacts made on fist-sized nodules, of variable quality. They contain flints
from a mixture of very local Rhine gravels and more distant (>100 km) sources in the Meuse
gravels (Street in Fagnart and Thevenin 1997). A similar preference for smaller nodules is evident
in contemporary industries in northern France. Although the key to this change in procurement
strategy is not fully understood, it is possible that the different approaches to raw material in the
Lateglacial should be regarded as complementary solutions to the same problem. That is, the
circulation of blanks ‘stored’ in the form of small, whole nodules (Final Upper Palaeolithic) may
have been just as effective, under certain circumstances, as Creswellian transportation of readymade
large blades.
Geographic distribution and subsistence economy
The majority of the 150 Lateglacial findspots in Britain can be attributed with reasonable certainty
to the Final Upper Palaeolithic. Of these, 39 are associated with finds of penknife points (Figure
2.8), while many of the rest are identified by the occurrence of typologically related forms. Apart
from being numerically superior to
Creswellian examples, they also
include a higher percentage of openair
sites and generally have a wider
geographical distribution, which
extends as far west as islands already
isolated by higher sea-level, such as
the Scillies. Since the majority of
typologically distinctive flint tools
such as Cheddar points or penknife
points are unlikely to have escaped
attention, it seems that this
distribution pattern reflects real
differences in the territories
exploited by both Lateglacial
groupings.
The spread of birch woodland
and the general shift away from more
open environments after about
12,000 BP, must have had an effect
on the amount and diversity of
available meat sources. Apart from
the addition of elk (Alces alces), which
is known from surprisingly few
records, red deer (Cervus elaphus), wild
aurochs (Bos primigenius) and, to a
lesser extent, wild horse (Equus ferus)
continued to be present in the
second half of the Interstadial. The
rarity of elk may be attributable to
its solitary behaviour and the fact
Figure 2.8 Distribution of Final Upper Palaeolithic penknife point findspots:
1. Pixie’s Hole; 2. Broken Cavern; 3. Three Holes Cave; 4–5. King
Arthur’s Cave/Symonds Yat East; 6. Mother Grundy’s Parlour.
Source: After Jacobi in Barton et al. 1991