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2023
Journal article
Did our ancestors nearly die out?
Genetic analyses suggest an ancient human population crash 900,000 years ago Earth’s climate system began to change during the Middle Pleistocene transition, which is associated with a severe cooling phase about 900,000 years ago. How this change might have affected human populations is difficult to determine, because the human fossil...Ashton, Nick ; Stringer, Chris
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2023
Journal article
The Western European Acheulean: Reading variability at a regional scale
In the context of the Western European Acheulean Project, this study aims to characterize Acheulean technology in Western Europe through the analysis of handaxes and cleavers from 10 key sites (Britain 4, France 4, and Spain 2) to acquire a regional view of the occupation. The historically different systems used...García-Medrano, Paula ; Moncel, Marie-Hélène ; Maldonado-Garrido, Elías ; Ollé, Andreu ; Ashton, Nick
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2023
Journal article
Middle Palaeolithic occupation of the southern North Sea Basin: evidence from the sandscaping sediments emplaced on the beach between Bacton and Walcott, Norfolk, UK
During the summer of 2019, the Bacton to Walcott Coastal Management Scheme involved the emplacement on to the foreshore of 1.8 million cubic metres of sand and gravel dredged from the submerged sediments of the Palaeo-Yare in the southern North Sea 11 km off Great Yarmouth. During the following 2-year...Davis, Rob ; Ashton, Nick ; Bynoe, Rachel ; Craven, John ; Ferguson, Rob …
Norfolk, Middle Palaeolithic , lithics, and artefacts
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2022
Journal article
Hominins likely occupied northern Europe before one million years ago
Our understanding of when hominins first reached northern Europe is dependent on a fragmented archaeological and fossil record known from as early as marine isotope stage (MIS) 21 or 25 (c. 840 or 950 thousand years ago [Ka]). This contrasts sharply with southern Europe, where hominin occupation is evidenced from...Key, Alastair ; Ashton, Nick
early human dispersal , hominin demography, and Lower Palaeolithic
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2022
Journal article
Flake tools in the European Lower Paleolithic: a case study from MIS 9 Britain
Studies of flake tools in the British Lower Paleolithic are rare owing to lower quantities of flake tools than handaxes and the perception that flake tool technology became more important in the succeeding Middle Paleolithic. In Britain, and Europe more broadly, MIS 9 (328–301 ka) has been characterized as a...Rawlinson, Aaron ; Dale, Luke ; Ashton, Nick ; Bridgland, David ; White, Mark
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2023
Journal article
A terrestrial record of climate variation during MIS 11 through multiproxy palaeotemperature reconstructions from Hoxne, UK
A terrestrial (lacustrine and fluvial) palaeoclimate record from Hoxne (Suffolk, UK) shows two temperate phases separated by a cold episode, correlated with MIS 11 subdivisions corresponding to isotopic events 11.3 (Hoxnian interglacial period), 11.24 (Stratum C cold interval), and 11.23 (warm interval with evidence of human presence). A robust, reproducible...Horne, David J. ; Ashton, Nick ; Benardout, Ginny ; Brooks, Stephen J. ; Coope, G. Russell …
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2022
Journal article
Acheulean diversity in Britain (MIS 15-MIS11): from the standardization to the regionalization of technology
The appearance of the Acheulean and the production of new bifacial tools marked a revolution in human behavior. The use of longer and complex operative chains, with centripetal and recurrent knapping, adapted to different raw materials, created long useful edges, converging in a functional distal end. How and why these...García-Medrano, Paula ; Shipton, Ceri ; White, Mark ; Ashton, Nick
Middle Pleistocene, handaxes, acheulean, Britain, and technology
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2020
Book chapter
The Early Middle Palaeolithic of Britain and Jersey: reconnecting the Saalian occupations of the Channel Region
The Early Middle Palaeolithic of southern Britain is best represented by the record recovered from within the terraces of the Thames, within which some attempt has been made to correlate particular sites to substage level within MIS 7. It has been suggested that there are particular features of the British...Scott, Beccy ; Ashton, Nick ; Shaw, Andrew ; Pope, Matthew
Jersey, Lithic industry., Early Middle Palaeolithic, Channel River, and Southern England
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2020
Journal article
Objectifying processes: The use of geometric morphometrics and multivariate analyses on Acheulean tools
Nowadays, the fruitful discussion regarding the morphological variability of handaxes during the Middle Pleistocene has reached a decisive moment with the use of more accurate statistical methods, such as geometric morphometrics (GM) and multivariate analyses (MA). This paper presents a preliminary methodological approach for checking the utility of these new...García-Medrano, Paula ; Maldonado-Garrido, Elías ; Ashton, Nick ; Ollé, Andreu
Boxgrove, Middle Pleistocene, handaxes, multivariate analyses, geometric morphometrics, Swanscombe, and Acheulean
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2019
Journal article
Twisted handaxes in Middle Pleistocene Britain and their implications for regional-scale cultural variation and the deep history of Acheulean hominin groups
A better understood chronological framework for the Middle Pleistocene of Britain has enabled archaeologists to detect a number of temporally-restricted assemblage-types, based not on ‘culture historical’ schemes of typological progression but on independent dating methods and secure stratigraphic frameworks, especially river-terrace sequences. This includes a consistent pattern in the timing...White, Mark ; Ashton, Nick ; Bridgland, David
ovate handaxes, social networks, Middle Pleistocene, hominin settlement, and Acheulean
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2019
Journal article
From site to museum: a critical assessment of collection history on the formation and interpretation of the British Early Palaeolithic record
The British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic record makes an important contribution to understanding the early occupation of northern Europe, in particular, through the detailed, systematic and multidisciplinary excavations of key sites. However, it is the historic collections, amassed by a large number of collectors over a 100-year period from the...Harris, Claire R.E. ; Ashton, Nick ; Lewis, Simon G.
Collecting, UK, Museum, Early Palaeolithic, and Handaxes
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1996
Book
Excavations at Barnfield Pit, Swanscombe, 1968–72
The lower Palaeolithic site at Swanscombe has been the focus of research and debate since the beginning of the century. Not only did it provide evidence of Clactonian flint industries overlain by Acheulian, but it has also yielded the only human skull fragments from this period in Britain. This volume...Conway, Bernard ; McNabb, John ; Ashton, Nick
Prehistory, archaeology, and geology
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2021
Journal article
Cultural mosaics, social structure, and identity: The Acheulean threshold in Europe
The period between 600 and 400 ka is a critical phase for human evolution in Europe. The south and northwest saw a dramatic increase in sites, the spread of handaxe technology alongside bone and wooden tool manufacture, efficient hunting techniques, and the use of fire. Lithic assemblages show considerable variation,...Ashton, Nick ; Davis, Rob
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1998
Book
Excavations at the Lower Palaeolithic Site at East Farm, Barnham, Suffolk 1989-94
Preliminary results are presented from three seasons' work at the Lower Palaeolithic site at Barnham. The complex stratigraphy is described and a provisional interpretation given, which suggests that the archaeological deposits date to a warm phase after the Anglian (Middle Pleistocene) cold stage. These assemblages and their position in the...Ashton, Nick ; Lewis, Simon G. ; Parfitt, Simon A.
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2010
Journal article
Early Pleistocene human occupation at the edge of the boreal zone in northwest Europe
The dispersal of early humans from Africa by 1.75 Myr ago led to a marked expansion of their range, from the island of Flores in the east to the Iberian peninsula in the west. This range encompassed tropical forest, savannah and Mediterranean habitats, but has hitherto not been demonstrated beyond 45°...Parfitt, Simon ; Ashton, Nick ; Lewis, Simon ; Abel, Richard L. ; Coope, G. Russell …
Happisburgh; human footprints; Lower Paleolithic; Early Pleistocene; Britain; Europe
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2019
Journal article
Human occupation of Northern Europe in MIS 13: a response to comments by Gibbard et al. (2019)
In a recent paper (Lewis et al., 2019) we reported the results of geological and archaeological investigations at Happisburgh Site 1. We also considered the significance of the site for understanding the human occupation of northern Europe during the early Middle Pleistocene. In a comment on the paper, Gibbard et...Lewis, Simon ; Ashton, Nick ; Hoare, Peter G. ; Parfitt, Simon
Happisburgh; human footprints; Lower Paleolithic; Early Pleistocene; Britain; Europe
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2019
Journal article
Human occupation of northern Europe in MIS 13: Happisburgh Site 1 (Norfolk, UK) and its European context
The timing, environmental setting and archaeological signatures of an early human presence in northern Europe have been longstanding themes of Palaeolithic research. In the space of 20 years, the earliest record of human occupation in Britain has been pushed back from 500 ka (Boxgrove) to 700 ka (Pakefield) and then...Lewis, Simon ; Ashton, Nick ; Field, Michael H. ; Hoare, Peter G. ; Kamermans, Hans …
Happisburgh; human footprints; Lower Paleolithic; Early Pleistocene; Britain; Europe
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2021
Journal article
Coastal curios? An analysis of ex situ beach finds for mapping new Palaeolithic sites at Happisburgh, UK
Recent archaeological discoveries from exposures of the Cromer Forest-bed Formation at Happisburgh, UK, have radically changed interpretations of the nature and timing of early hominin occupation of northern latitudes, but this in situ archaeology is only one part of the picture. Surface finds of Pleistocene mammalian remains have been found...Bynoe, Rachel ; Ashton, Nick ; Grimmer, Tim ; Hoare, Peter ; Leonard, Joanne …
Happisburgh; human footprints; Lower Paleolithic; Early Pleistocene; Britain; Europe
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2018
Research report
Understanding and Monitoring the Cromer Forest-bed Formation
The Cromer Forest-bed Formation that is exposed on the foreshores of the Suffolk and Norfolk coasts is of critical importance in understanding the earliest human occupation of northern Europe, but is under continual destruction from coastal erosion. This report is the culmination of a four year programme to monitor and...Ashton, Nick ; Lewis, Simon G. ; Parfitt, Simon A. ; Bates, Martin R. ; Bates, Richard …
coastal; environmental studies; geoarchaeology; palaeolithic
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2014
Journal article
Hominin footprints from Early Pleistocene deposits at Happisburgh, UK
Investigations at Happisburgh, UK, have revealed the oldest known hominin footprint surface outside Africa at between ca. 1 million and 0.78 million years ago. The site has long been recognised for the preservation of sediments containing Early Pleistocene fauna and flora, but since 2005 has also yielded humanly made flint...Ashton, Nick ; Lewis, Simon G. ; De Groote, Isabelle ; Duffy, Sarah M. ; Bates, Martin …
Happisburgh; human footprints; Lower Paleolithic; Early Pleistocene; Britain; Europe
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Book chapter
Steps from history. The Happisburgh footprints and their connections with the past
Human footprints were discovered at Happisburgh, UK, in 2013. This paper describes their discovery and the difficulties of recording such enigmatic remains in a coastal environment.Ashton, Nick
Happisburgh; human footprints; Lower Paleolithic; Early Pleistocene; Britain; Europe
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2019
Journal article
Landscapes, environments and societies: The development of culture in Lower Palaeolithic Europe
Identification of cultural groups is rare in the early Palaeolithic due to site formation processes including taphonomy and the effect of raw material and site function. This paper reviews a critical period in Europe at about 400 ka (MIS 11) when we may be able to identify such groups. This period,...Davis, Rob ; Ashton, Nick
Middle Pleistocene; Europe; Lower Palaeolithic culture; Acheulean; handaxes; fire
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2016
Journal article
Handaxe and non-handaxe assemblages during Marine Isotope Stage 11 in northern Europe: Recent investigations at Barnham, Suffolk, UK
Britain has an important geological, environmental and archaeological record for Marine Isotope Stage 11 (MIS 11), which makes a major contribution to understanding of the human occupation of northern Europe. New fieldwork at Barnham, Suffolk, UK, has identified through improved geological resolution the change in assemblages from simple core and...Ashton, Nick ; Lewis, Simon G. ; Parfitt, Simon A. ; Davis, Rob J. ; Stringer, Chris