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

The Lateglacial colonization of Britain
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Church Hole (Creswell Crags,
Derbyshire). Products on
unidentified antler include parts of
three barbed harpoons from Kent’s
Cavern, while leg bones of arctic
hare (Lepus timidus) modified for use
as pointed awls (poinçons) have been
recovered at Gough’s Cave and
Robin Hood Cave (Creswell Crags,
Derbyshire). Other organic items
include bone needles at Gough’s
Cave, Church Hole and Kent’s
Cavern, plus an awl—though not of
hare bone—from the latter site.
Several fox tooth beads have also
been found at Gough’s Cave.
Evidence for the method of
antler working technology is
restricted to a single fragment of
antler from Gough’s Cave that
shows groove and splinter
modification. Grooves and cuts on
the bones of Whooper swan (Cygnus
cygnus) from Gough’s Cave show how
needles were manufactured from
bone cores.
Radiocarbon dating
Until recently, efforts to date the
Creswellian have been greatly
hampered by the limitations of the
conventional methods of
Figure 2.3 Distribution of Creswellian findspots: 1. Kent’s Cavern; 2. Three
Holes Cave; 3. Sun Hole; 4. Gough’s Cave; 5. King Arthur’s Cave; 6. Robin
Hood Cave; 7. Pin Hole; 8. Church Hole. Hachuring indicates potential
source of flint raw materials.
Source: After Jacobi in Barton et al. 1991
determining radiocarbon ages (Campbell 1977). However, since the 1980s, with the advent of
AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) dating which can use extremely small sample sizes, the
position has been considerably improved, and it is now possible to outline with greater confidence
a basic chronological scheme for the Lateglacial settlement of Britain (Housley et al. 1997). The
record is based on directly dated human bone, cut-marked bone and teeth, and bone, antler and
ivory artefacts.
AMS radiocarbon dates are presented (Table 2.2) for a selection of sites for which reliable
associations with Creswellian artefacts exist. Nearly all of them fall between 12,500 and 12,000
BP, and are thus certainly part of the pre-woodland phase of the Interstadial. One of the sites
deliberately omitted is Gough’s Cave, as this spans a greater number of radiocarbon years and
includes artefactual material of clearly later type (see below). Equally problematic, for the moment,
is the earliest date on modified bone from Gough’s Cave (12,800±150 BP), since it is so far the
only date for a Creswellian site that could be significantly older than 12,500 BP. If the date is
genuine, it might suggest a potentially earlier phase of occupation in south-west Britain than
has hitherto been recognized. Taken as a whole, the AMS dates confirm that human presence