Latitude: 50.870537
Longitude: -0.693940
Site: Oldest human remains in Britain
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Importance: Oldest human remains in Britain
Extra: A shin bone and two teeth are the oldest direct evidence of humans ever uncovered in Britain. They reveal that the people living at Boxgrove half a million years ago were probably the species Homo heidelbergensis. Beautifully crafted handaxes and cut marks on rhinoceros, horse and deer bones suggest these people were expert at butchering large animals.
Link1: First Britons
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External1: Boxgrove project website
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Caption: The 500,000-year-old shin bone (tibia) found at Boxgrove.
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Latitude: 51.281869
Longitude: -2.765523
Site: Evidence of cannibalism and possible ritualistic behaviour
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Importance: Evidence of cannibalism and possible ritualistic behaviour
Extra: In 2011, AHOB project scientists published analyses of 14,700-year-old human remains from Gough's Cave.
Leg bones and ribs belonging to several individuals show clear evidence of cannibalism. The bones were smashed open and gnawed to extract marrow. Skulls had been carefully shaped to create cups or bowls, raising the possibility that people were eating other people as a ritual. They are the oldest directly dated human skull-cups in the world.
Link1: VIDEO: Cannibalism at Gough's Cave
Link2: NEWS: Earliest human skull-cups
Link3: NEWS: First home after ice age
External1: Cheddar Gorge caves website
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Caption: One of three human skull-cups found at Gough's Cave.
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Latitude: 52.826667
Longitude: 1.532778
Site: Earliest evidence of humans in Britain
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Importance: Earliest evidence of humans in Britain
Extra: Flints unmistakably made by humans excavated at Happisburgh site 3 are about 900,000 years old and the most ancient tools ever found in Britain. The identity of the early human pioneers who made them isn't known, but other European discoveries point towards a species called Homo antecessor. The remarkable preservation of plants and animals at the site paints a detailed picture of the environment in which they existed.
Link1: Homo antecessor
Link2: VIDEO: Discovering the earliest pioneers
Link3: NEWS: Earliest northern Europeans
External1: AHOB website: Happisburgh discoveries
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Caption: One of the flint tools found at Happisburgh site 3.
Copyright: © The Trustees of the British Museum
Latitude: 50.468200
Longitude: -3.503000
Site: Earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in Britain
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Importance: Earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in Britain
Extra: The importance of this jaw fragment found in 1927 was only fully realised after a study by scientists from the AHOB project.
By radiocarbon dating animal bones excavated above and below the jawbone, they showed it was potentially at least 40,000 years old. Their analysis of the teeth confirmed it as early modern human rather than Neanderthal, making it the earliest direct evidence for the presence of our own species in Britain.
Link1: NEWS: Jawbone reveals earliest NW European
Link2: First Britons
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External1: Torquay Museum website
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Caption: Kent's Cavern jaw fragment.
Copyright: © Torquay Museum/Chris Proctor
Latitude: 52.315595
Longitude: 0.636357
Site: First evidence of controlled fire in Britain
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Importance: First evidence of controlled fire in Britain
Extra: Distinct patches of burnt ground indicate a series of hearths at Beeches Pit. At around 400,000 years old, they are the earliest convincing evidence for the controlled use of fire in Britain.
The people using the hearths would have benefited from extra warmth and light, protection from animals and a way to cook their food, which makes it easier to digest and renders many parasites and toxins harmless.
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Latitude: 51.777582
Longitude: 1.127953
Site: World's oldest wooden spear
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Importance: World's oldest wooden spear
Extra: Wood rarely survives in the archaeological record. This find reminds us that early humans probably had a sophisticated toolkit made from wood and other materials that would usually have rotted.
Almost 40cm long, this is the broken end of an originally longer object, whittled to a point with a stone tool. It would have made a lethal weapon. Other more complete spears found in Germany suggest it may have been the tip of a two-metre-long lance.
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External1: Schoeningen Museum website
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Caption: 400,000-year-old spear point made from yew wood.
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Latitude: 51.756312
Longitude: 3.344621
Site: First ancient human remains recovered from the sea bed
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Importance: First ancient human remains recovered from the sea bed
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Link1: NEWS: Neanderthal of the North Sea
Link2: Neanderthal fact file
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Latitude: 53.548837
Longitude: -3.104177
Site: Well-preserved human footprints and trails
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Importance: Well-preserved human footprints and trails
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External1: Formby footprints website
External2: National Trust website: Beyond the Formby footprints
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Caption: One of the human footprints at Formby.
Copyright: © Gordon Roberts
Latitude: 51.507475
Longitude: -0.128425
Site: Animal fossils that indicate Britain had become an island
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Importance: Animal fossils indicate Britain had become an island
Extra: Fossils show that the mix of mammal species living here 125,000 years ago was unique to Britain at that time. It was a strange combination of Eurasian woodland species and animals such as those now found in Africa. Hippos, lions, rhinos and elephants lived alongside red and fallow deer. At this time, Britain was an island, with no human inhabitants.
Link1: Britain's changing landscape
Link2: Britain's ice age animals
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External1: BBC website: Ice age safari video
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Caption: Building works at Trafalgar Square unearthed this 125,000-year-old hippo canine.
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Latitude: 49.175966
Longitude: -2.188300
Site: Evidence of Neanderthal behaviour
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Importance: Evidence of Neanderthal behaviour
Extra: Neanderthals lived here intermittently for almost 200,000 years, including during a severe cold period, which caused humans to abandon mainland Britain about 180,000 years ago.
The surrounding landscape and thousands of artefacts reveal much about these people’s lives. Piles of bones stacked against the cave wall, for example, not only indicate that the La Cotte Neanderthals hunted and killed mammoths, but that they apparently liked to clear their workspace after butchering carcasses.
Link1: VIDEO: Neanderthal hunters
Link2: Britain's changing landscape
Link3: Britain's ice age animals
External1: Jersey Heritage website: Ice Age Island project
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Caption: View of the cave Neanderthals occupied repeatedly.
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Latitude: 52.520491
Longitude: 0.686730
Site: First evidence of a Neanderthal return to Britain after an apparent absence of 120,000 years
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Importance: First evidence of a Neanderthal return to Britain after an apparent absence of 120,000 years
Extra: No definite trace of humans between 180,000 and 60,000 years ago has been found in Britain. Severe glacial conditions forced Neanderthals out and when conditions improved, Britain became cut off from the rest of Europe, hindering their return. Stone tools excavated at Lynford are the earliest evidence of their reappearance.
The remains of at least 11 mammoths have also been unearthed here. Missing limb bones and other clues suggest Neanderthals processed them for food.
Link1: Britain's changing landscape
Link2: VIDEO: Neanderthal hunters
Link3: First Britons
External1: English Heritage website: Excavations at Lynford
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Caption: One of the handaxes found at Lynford.
Copyright: © Nigel Larkin
Latitude: 52.431914
Longitude: 1.728862
Site: One of the oldest known human occupations in Britain
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Importance: One of the oldest known sites of human occupation in Britain
Extra: Simple but sharp-edged stone tools left behind at Pakefield around 700,000 years ago are among the oldest traces of humans in Britain. Tiny fossils of small mammals, vole teeth in particular, helped to prove the great age of the artefacts.
When scientists reported the findings in 2005, this was the earliest evidence for people living in Britain, although that distinction has since passed to footprints and flint tools found at Happisburgh.
Link1: NEWS: Pakefield discoveries
Link2: First Britons
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External1: Archaeology magazine website: Pakefield feature
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Caption: Two of the flint flakes found at Pakefield.
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Latitude: 51.549928
Longitude: -4.255604
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Importance: Oldest known burial in Britain
Extra: This man was buried in a Welsh cave about 34,000 years ago. His body was decorated with periwinkle shells, red pigment and jewellery made from mammoth ivory. This is the earliest evidence found in Britain of modern humans treating their dead with some form of spiritual ritual.
When discovered in 1823, the bones were mistakenly believed to belong to a woman. The individual is still often referred to as the 'Red Lady of Paviland'.
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External1: Guardian website: The secrets of Paviland Cave
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Caption: Ochre-stained bones of an adult male.
Copyright: © Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Latitude: 53.227117
Longitude: -3.476466
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Importance: Rare evidence of Neanderthals in Wales
Extra: Excavations at this cave between 1978 and 1995 unearthed teeth belonging to at least five individuals. X-rays of the molar teeth show they had fused roots and enlarged pulp cavities, which are characteristic of Neanderthals. Tooth wear indicates there were three children, one young adult and a more mature adult, suggesting family groups of Neanderthals lived here.
Dated to about 230,000 years ago, they are the oldest human remains known from Wales.
Link1: Neanderthal fact file
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External1: National Museum of Wales website: Pontnewydd Cave excavations
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Caption: Teeth of a young Neanderthal, around eight years old, found in Pontnewydd Cave.
Copyright: © National Museum of Wales
Latitude: 51.444686
Longitude: 0.298174
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Importance: Early Neanderthal skull discovery, perhaps one of the first Neanderthals in Britain
Extra: Three pieces of this skull were found between 1935 and 1955, scattered in a gravel pit in the same layer as thousands of hand axes.
The inside surfaces of the skull are so well preserved that they show impressions of the folds and blood vessels on the brain’s surface. These indicate that this brain was the same size as human brains today. The skull has some characteristic Neanderthal features, including a small pit where the neck muscles attached to the skull.
Link1: First Britons
Link2: BLOG: Neanderthal woman in pieces
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External1: Swanscombe Heritage Park website
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Caption: The approximately 400,000-year-old faceless skull found at Swanscombe.
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