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

• 28 • Nicholas Barton
that it is a long-distance migrant. The visibility and distribution of these and other animals in the
landscape would have been important factors in the type of hunting strategy employed by
contemporary human populations. According to some specialists, the introduction of new archery
technology may have coincided with the period of woodland development. Certainly, the curvebacked
and penknife points would have made highly efficient weapon-heads, and the presence of
‘impact fractures’ on the tips of some examples lends weight to the idea that these tools were
used as projectiles.
Not considered here are edible fruits and plants which must have formed complementary
food sources in the human diet, at least on a seasonal basis. Unfortunately, there is no direct
evidence for the use of plant foods, due to the extreme fragility of such evidence, but amongst
the potentially exploitable resource were wild berries, fruits and a range of edible fungi. It should
be noted, however, that Boreal woodland ecosystems are far less productive in terms of plant
biomass than open steppe grasslands. They are also characterized by a less stable food chain, with
plant (and consequently animal) communities being susceptible to cyclical fluctuations and,
sometimes, even catastrophic failures. Thus it is likely that a diversity of plants and animals was
exploited, rather than wholesale reliance being placed on a few select species.
Detailed spatial analyses are currently lacking for most Final Upper Palaeolithic sites, but
indications from work in progress suggest that bone concentrations at Three Holes Cave and
Symonds Yat East Rockshelter coincide closely with those of flint scatters. Much of the bone
from these sites is heavily smashed and fragmented, perhaps indicative of systematic crushing
of bones and cancellous tissue to extract fat and juice. The presence of a cut-marked bovid
scapula at Pixie’s Hole certainly confirms that processing of these animals took place at campsites.
The only substantial open-air site for which there is evidence of internal spatial organization
is at Hengistbury Head, but here interpretation is hampered by lack of any contemporary organic
remains. Nevertheless, the distribution of flints revealed discrete areas of activity where blades
were first manufactured and then transformed into tools. By refitting core-to-blade sequences, it
was also possible to demonstrate a peripheral zone where blanks for tools were prepared and an
adjacent zone where tools were used and discarded around a probable hearth (Barton 1992). The
circulation of material between outer and inner areas with hearths is a recurrent feature at a
number of European sites of this period. Also noticeable at Hengistbury was an overlap in the
distributions of end-scrapers and red ochre, including a worked ‘crayon’. The possibility that this
signified a hide-processing area is supported both by the low edge angles and hooked profiles of
the scrapers, typical of a hide-working function, and the well-attested use of red ochre as a
colorant of hide and other materials in the ethnohistoric record.
The bone- and antler-work of this period is largely restricted to functional items such as
barbed hunting equipment (Table 2.3). The only potential exceptions are four engraved and
ochre-stained bone tallies from Kendrick’s Cave, Llandudno (Gwynedd). One of these tallies
has been directly dated to 11,795±65 BP. The close agreement in age between this and a human
bone from the same cave suggests the presence of an inhumation burial. It is noteworthy that
the date overlaps at one standard deviation with one of the individuals from Gough’s Cave,
where similar bone tallies were also recorded. The only other example of non-figurative artwork
from this period is an abstract engraving on the cortex of a flint core from Hengistbury (Barton
1992).