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

The Lateglacial colonization of Britain
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The use of imported flint is nowhere more apparent than in western Britain, where instances
of geologically in situ sources of flint are rare. Finds from Kent’s Cavern and Three Holes Cave
(Devon) include well-made flint blades and tools on long blade blanks. Significantly, although
good flint sources are available at Beer (Devon), the only local material employed at Three Holes
Cave seems to have been Greensand chert, which occurs at the site almost exclusively in the form
of retouched tools (Barton and Roberts 1996). The low quantities of flint debitage with cortication
and primary blade waste recorded at both sites further implies that many of the tools and blades
were imported as finished items rather than being knapped on the spot. A similar situation has
also been described for Gough’s Cave (Somerset), where translucent flints appear to have been
carried in from sources no nearer than the Vale of Pewsey, on the northern edge of Salisbury
Plain (Wiltshire), 60 km to the east (Jacobi in Fagnart and Thevenin 1997). This may also be the
source of the flint found in the Devon caves, a minimum distance of 160 km, supporting the
contention that Creswellian groups engaged in long-distance movements with correspondingly
high residential mobility.
The likelihood that Creswellian groups were not sedentary is strengthened by finds at Gough’s
Cave of non-local sea shells and pieces of Baltic amber, the nearest known source of which is the
North Sea coast. Similarly, comparison of individual artefacts from sites as far apart as Kent’s
Cavern and Robin Hood Cave (Creswell Crags, Derbyshire) has shown such striking resemblances
as to suppose that they were made by a single group (Jacobi in Barton et al. 1991). If this is
correct, it could give an approximation of the potential size and geography of the annual range
exploited by these people.
Interestingly, observations concerning the procurement of non-local rocks for tool making
closely match patterns recorded in the continental Late Magdalenian (Arts and Deeben 1987),
where long-distance movements of materials have been correlated with greater mobility of huntergatherer
groups. Amongst various explanations put forward is that raw materials were either
exchanged between groups from different territories or that expeditions were deliberately mounted
to obtain them. The high quality of much of the raw material at sites in the Central Rhineland
suggests the latter as the more likely explanation (Street in Fagnart and Thevenin 1997).
Thus the distribution and use of raw materials in the Creswellian tends to suggest an activity
radius of well over 100 km. In such instances, the reduction of nodules into more manageable
blade forms would make sense as an economizing measure designed to reduce weight of pieces
carried into a more manageable form. The transportability of these toolkits is further emphasized
by the fact that the imported implements may show signs of especially heavy use and resharpening.
Seasonality and subsistence
Evidence linking the exploitation of mammal faunas and human activity is preserved in the form
of cut-marks on and other modification to bones, antler and ivory found at Creswellian sites.
Species known to have been exploited for meat, raw materials and artefacts included wild horse
(Equus ferus), red deer (Cervus elaphus), arctic hare (Lepus timidus), reindeer (Rangifer tarandus),
mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), Saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica), wild cattle (Bos primigenius), brown
bear (Ursus arctos) and lynx (Lynx lynx). To this list can probably be added arctic fox (Alopex
lagopus), red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and wolf (Canis lupus), although no cut-marks have yet been recorded
on Lateglacial bone specimens.
The food species dominantly represented at Creswellian sites is the wild horse. Although wild
horses are now extinct, behavioural studies on semi-feral populations in Mongolia reveal that
they live in small herds and move constantly between grazing grounds. Today they are adapted to
dry, open grassland habitats, but the main restriction on their distribution is the availability of
drinking water. The only limitation to their ceaseless mobility is when young foals are present