The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
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<strong>The</strong> Lateglacial colonization <strong>of</strong> <strong>Britain</strong><br />
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Farm (Oxfordshire), they usually<br />
contain a high proportion <strong>of</strong> blade<br />
waste to retouched tools, the latter<br />
making up less than 2 per cent <strong>of</strong><br />
the assemblage. <strong>The</strong> absence <strong>of</strong><br />
hearth structures and burnt flints<br />
<strong>from</strong> all these sites implies that they<br />
were occupied for short durations,<br />
perhaps mainly relating to knapping<br />
and blade manufacture.<br />
Parallels for these British ‘long<br />
blade’ sites <strong>ca</strong>n be found in the<br />
Ahrensburgian <strong>of</strong> northern Germany,<br />
particularly in assemblages <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Eggstedt-Stellmoor group,<br />
characterized by ‘large’ and ‘giant’<br />
blades (Gross- and Riesenklingen as<br />
defined in Taute 1968). <strong>The</strong> best<br />
known site is Stellmoor, where the<br />
ages <strong>of</strong> nine individually dated<br />
reindeer bones and antlers <strong>from</strong> the<br />
Ahrensburgian layer give a pooled<br />
age <strong>of</strong> 9,995 ±34 BP (Cook and<br />
Jacobi 1994). However,<br />
Ahrensburgian sites tend to include<br />
small tanged points (Stielspitzen) and,<br />
with the exception <strong>of</strong> Avington VI,<br />
this component is so far missing in<br />
British ‘long blade’ assemblages. In<br />
northern France, similar ‘long blade’<br />
material has been described <strong>from</strong> the<br />
Figure 2.10 Distribution <strong>of</strong> Final Upper Palaeolithic ‘long blade’<br />
findspots with bruised blades (lames mâchurées): 1. Avington VI;<br />
2. Gatehampton Farm; 3. Three Ways Wharf; 4. Springhead; 5. Riverdale;<br />
6. Sproughton; 7. Swaffham Prior.<br />
Somme Valley and the Paris Basin, where it is attributed to the so-<strong>ca</strong>lled industries à pieces mâchurées.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se assemblages also display a notable absence <strong>of</strong> small tanged points. Where bone is preserved<br />
in the French sites, it is derived <strong>from</strong> either wild horse or bovids, rather than reindeer. Four AMS<br />
dates on horse teeth <strong>from</strong> the site at Belloy-sur-Somme in Pi<strong>ca</strong>rdy range <strong>from</strong> 10,260±160 BP to<br />
9,720±130 BP, and overlap in age with the Three Ways Wharf site.<br />
Other findspots in <strong>Britain</strong> <strong>of</strong> potentially comparable age include Risby Warren (Humberside),<br />
where small Ahrensburgian points were recorded in an assemblage <strong>from</strong> above the equivalent <strong>of</strong><br />
a Younger Dryas Coversand deposit, and Tayfen Road, Bury St Edmunds (Suffolk) and Doniford<br />
Cliff (Somerset), where single specimens <strong>of</strong> Ahrensburgian points are known. At none <strong>of</strong> these<br />
lo<strong>ca</strong>tions, however, were any long blades recovered. Thus it remains to be determined whether<br />
the tanged point sites are chronologi<strong>ca</strong>lly equivalent to those <strong>of</strong> ‘long blade’ type. <strong>The</strong> proximity<br />
<strong>of</strong> Risby Warren to the Younger Dryas North Sea shoreline and the similar coastal position <strong>of</strong><br />
Ahrensburgian sites in southern S<strong>ca</strong>ndinavia and northern Germany may point to the seasonal<br />
exploitation <strong>of</strong> various marine food sources in addition to reindeer. Remains <strong>of</strong> seals, whales and<br />
fish have been recorded in some <strong>of</strong> the S<strong>ca</strong>ndinavian sites (Eriksen in Larsson 1996). A date <strong>of</strong><br />
9940±100 BP on domesti<strong>ca</strong>ted dog <strong>from</strong> Seamer Carr (North Yorkshire), not far <strong>from</strong> Risby,