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

The Lateglacial colonization of Britain
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Farm (Oxfordshire), they usually
contain a high proportion of blade
waste to retouched tools, the latter
making up less than 2 per cent of
the assemblage. The absence of
hearth structures and burnt flints
from all these sites implies that they
were occupied for short durations,
perhaps mainly relating to knapping
and blade manufacture.
Parallels for these British ‘long
blade’ sites can be found in the
Ahrensburgian of northern Germany,
particularly in assemblages of the
Eggstedt-Stellmoor group,
characterized by ‘large’ and ‘giant’
blades (Gross- and Riesenklingen as
defined in Taute 1968). The best
known site is Stellmoor, where the
ages of nine individually dated
reindeer bones and antlers from the
Ahrensburgian layer give a pooled
age of 9,995 ±34 BP (Cook and
Jacobi 1994). However,
Ahrensburgian sites tend to include
small tanged points (Stielspitzen) and,
with the exception of Avington VI,
this component is so far missing in
British ‘long blade’ assemblages. In
northern France, similar ‘long blade’
material has been described from the
Figure 2.10 Distribution of Final Upper Palaeolithic ‘long blade’
findspots with bruised blades (lames mâchurées): 1. Avington VI;
2. Gatehampton Farm; 3. Three Ways Wharf; 4. Springhead; 5. Riverdale;
6. Sproughton; 7. Swaffham Prior.
Somme Valley and the Paris Basin, where it is attributed to the so-called industries à pieces mâchurées.
These assemblages also display a notable absence of small tanged points. Where bone is preserved
in the French sites, it is derived from either wild horse or bovids, rather than reindeer. Four AMS
dates on horse teeth from the site at Belloy-sur-Somme in Picardy range from 10,260±160 BP to
9,720±130 BP, and overlap in age with the Three Ways Wharf site.
Other findspots in Britain of potentially comparable age include Risby Warren (Humberside),
where small Ahrensburgian points were recorded in an assemblage from above the equivalent of
a Younger Dryas Coversand deposit, and Tayfen Road, Bury St Edmunds (Suffolk) and Doniford
Cliff (Somerset), where single specimens of Ahrensburgian points are known. At none of these
locations, however, were any long blades recovered. Thus it remains to be determined whether
the tanged point sites are chronologically equivalent to those of ‘long blade’ type. The proximity
of Risby Warren to the Younger Dryas North Sea shoreline and the similar coastal position of
Ahrensburgian sites in southern Scandinavia and northern Germany may point to the seasonal
exploitation of various marine food sources in addition to reindeer. Remains of seals, whales and
fish have been recorded in some of the Scandinavian sites (Eriksen in Larsson 1996). A date of
9940±100 BP on domesticated dog from Seamer Carr (North Yorkshire), not far from Risby,