Reply
Tue 24 Jan, 2006 11:42 am
From Current Archaeology
200,000 years before Boxgrove Man, a hominid in what is now Norfolk used a handaxe to butcher a bison...
Quote:The oldest evidence for humans in North West Europe has recently been discovered in East Anglia. the evidence consists, no t of human bones, but of flint tools - and animal bones showing signs of having been cut up by flint tools. These have been found in the Cromer Forest Beds.
For the past 140 years the Cromer Forest Beds (more correctly the Forest Bed Series) have been one of the most important, and one of the most controversial, features in British Palaeolithic archaeology. They consist of a dark layer containing fossilised animal and plant material that is found in many places along the Norfolk and part of the Suffolk coasts. What is important about them is that everywhere they underlied the thick clay, gravel and sand deposits that formthe cliffs in this part of the world and which were laid down by glaciations. The forest beds are therefore pre glacial, and if they contain flint tools, then those must date before the earliest glaciation i.e. the Anglian or Great Glaciation which swept down almost to the line of the present River Thames somewhere around 450,000 BC.
So now you know, early man was skinning chipping and chopping in England quite a while before the earth was created according to the religious texts.
Wow! Fascinating stuff, Steve.
No human remains, tho. It could have been a couple of prehistoric Frenchmen crossing the Channel on holiday, mugged a couple of deer, and went home.
Any pictures? Enlighten us more about Boxgrove Man.
Could they be early ancestors of the lord?
There were no photos Equus, Happisburgh Man (pronounced Hazeboro btw) was a few chops of a flint axe away from a 7 megapixel digital camera.
Regarding Lord Ellpus's hominid relatives, well I'll let him explain, he tells it better.
Thank you Steve.
My family line goes back through the Normans and eventually ends up somewhere in Norway.
Until further research has been carried out, my earliest traceable ancestor seems to be Ellpus the Groper, who led a raid on a convent training school in Lindisfarne in about AD 800.
Extract from his diary, translated from Norse......."Landed at 9.30am, brewed up a cup of tea on the beach and headed off for the convent.
Groped everything for about six hours, and then rowed home.
A good day, all in all."
I suppose they could have been relatives......were there any signs of unusual practises?
No Happisburgh man seems to have been quite normal in his habits, you know throwing rocks at wild animals, digging heffalump traps, and generally grunting a lot.
However nearby at sites known now by their generic terms 'butlin' or 'pontin' some most deviant behaviour is well documented. These strange night time rituals took place on feast or holy days and seem to have involved consumption of large quantities of an early fermented mead or beer.
Thanks Walter, I knew I could rely on you for sensible and illuminating input.
What about MEEEE! I always supply good, sensible stuff on your threads, Steve.
I feel hurt, I tell you!
Oh you too E of course
after all the sensible stuff you supply the important bits that keep us sane thanks
better?
You should bribe better and butter up more goal-oriented.