Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T19:19:29.889Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The earlier Palaeolithic occupation of the Chilterns (southern England): re-assessing the sites of Worthington G. Smith

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Mark J. White
Mark J. White*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, England
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Boxgrove in Sussex has been in the headlines for its human bone (‘the first Englishman’); more to the research point is its superb in-place deposits of debris from handaxe-knapping. This is a timely moment to look once again at the reports of Worthington G. Smith, who a century ago recognized, amongst the scores of sites with river-rolled handaxes, rare deposits of a more informative character.

Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 71 , Issue 274 , December 1997 , pp. 912 - 931
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ashton, N.M. In press. The technology and site formation of the lithic assemblages, in Ashton, N.M. et al. (ed.), Excavations at Bamham St Gregory, Suffolk 1989–1994. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Ashton, N.M. Forthcoming. Absence of humans in Britain during the last Interglacial (Stage 5e). Pre-publication manuscript.Google Scholar
Austin, L. 1994. The life and death of a Boxgrove biface, in Ashton, N. & David, A. (ed.), Stories in stone: 119–26. London: Lithic Studies Society. Occasional Papers 4.Google Scholar
Avery, B.W., Bullock, P. Catt, J.A Rayner, J.H & Weir, A.H. 1982. Composition and origin of some brickearths on the Chiltern Hills, England, Catena 9: 153–74.Google Scholar
Bagshawe, T.W. 1967. W.G.S: a man to remember, Bedfordshire Magazine 2: 73–9.Google Scholar
Barrow, G. 1919. Some future work for the Geologists’ Association, Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 30: 1–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, E.F.D. 1934. Geology, in Hine, R.L. (ed.), The natural history of the Hitchin region: 26–52. Hitchin: W.M. Carling.Google Scholar
Boreham, S. & Gldbard, P.L. 1995. Middle Pleistocene Hoxnian stage Interglacial deposits at Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England, Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 106: 259–70.Google Scholar
Boswski, G. 1995. The earliest occupation of Europe: west central Europe, in Roebroeks, & Van Kolfschoten, (ed.): 103–28.Google Scholar
Bradley, B.A. & Sampson, C.G. 1978. The Cottages site, in Sampson, (ed.): 83–138.Google Scholar
Bridgland, D.R. 1994. Quaternary of the Thames. London: Chapman and Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bkidcland, D.R. & Harding, P. 1989. Investigations at Gaddesden Row Brickpit, Hertfordshire, Quaternary Newsletter 59: 2–4.Google Scholar
Campbell, J.B., & Hubbard, R.N.L. 1978. Biological investigation of the Rackley Site, in Sampson, (ed.): 47–60.Google Scholar
Campbell, J.B., & Sampson, C.C. 1978. The Cottages Site, in Sampson, (ed.): 61–83.Google Scholar
Catt, J.A. 1978. Sediments from the Rackley Site, in Sampson, (ed.): 39–46.Google Scholar
Catt, J.A. & Hagan, R.E. 1978. Geological background, in Sampson, (ed.): 17–28.Google Scholar
Catt, J.A., Hubbard, R.N.L. & Sampson, C.G. 1978. Summary and conclusions, in, in Sampson, (ed.): 139–50.Google Scholar
Conway, B.W., Mcnabb, J. & Ashton, N.M. 1996. Summary, in Conway, B.W. et al. (ed) Excavations at Barnfield Pit, Swanscombe 1968–72: 237–40. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Cox, A. 1979. Survey of Bedfordshire brickmaking: a history and gazetteer. Bedford: Bedfordshire County Council.Google Scholar
Dyer, J. 1959. Middling for Wrecks: extracts from the story of Worthington and Henrietta Smith, Bedfordshire Archaeologist 2: 1–15.Google Scholar
Dyer, J. 1978. Worthington George Smith, Bedfordshire Historical Records Society Proceedings 57: 141–79Google Scholar
Gamble, C.S. 1986. The Palaeolithic settlement of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gamble, C.S. 1987. Man the shoveller: alternative models for Middle Pleistocene colonisation and occupation in northern latitudes, in Soffer, O. (ed.), The Pleistocene Old World: regional perspectives: 81–98. New York (NY): Plenum.Google Scholar
Gamble, C.S. 1992. Comment on Roebroeks et al, Current Anthropology 33 (5): 569–73.Google Scholar
Gamble, C.S. 1993. Timewalkers: the prehistory of global colonisation. Stroud: Alan Sutton.Google Scholar
Gamble, C.S. 1995. The earliest occupation of Europe: the environmental background, in Roebroeks, & Van Kolfschoten, (ed.): 279–96.Google Scholar
Gamble, C.S. 1996. Hominid behaviour in the Middle Pleistocene: an English perspective, in Gamble, C.S. & Lawson, A.J. (ed.), The English Palaeolithic reviewed: 63–71. Salisbury: Trust for Wessex Archaeology.Google Scholar
Harrison, R.E. 1928. Harrison of Ightham. Privately printed.Google Scholar
Kelly, R. 1983. Hunter-gatherer mobility strategies, Journal of Anthropological Research 39: 277–306.Google Scholar
Loveday, J. 1962. Plateau deposits of the southern Chiltern Hills, Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 73: 83–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mania, D. 1995. The earliest occupation of Europe: the Elbe-Saale region (Germany), in Roebroeks, & Van Kolfschoten, (ed.): 85–102.Google Scholar
Mcnabb, J. 1992. The Clactonian: British Lower Palaeolithic flint technology in biface and non-biface assemblages. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
Mullenders, W.W. 1993. New palynological studies at Home, in Singer, et al. (ed.): 150–55.Google Scholar
Roberts, M.B. 1986. Excavations at the Lower Palaeolithic site at Amey’s Eartham Pit, Boxgrove West Sussex: a preliminary report, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 52: 215–45. Google Scholar
Roberts, M.B. 1990. Amey’s Eartham Pit, Boxgrove. SEQS field excursion guidebook: the Cromer Symposium, Norwich: 62–81.Google Scholar
Roe, D.A. 1968a. British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic handaxe groups, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 34: 1–82.Google Scholar
Roe, D.A. 1968b. A gazetteer of British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic sites. London: Council for British Archaeology. Research report 8.Google Scholar
Roebroeks, W., Conard, N.J. & Van Kolfschoten, T. 1992. Dense forests, cold steppes, and the Palaeolithic settlement of northern Europe, Current Anthropology 33 (5): 551–86.Google Scholar
Roebroeks, W. & Van Kolfschoten, T. (ed.). 1995. The earliest occupation of Europe: proceedings of the European Science Foundation Workshop at Tautavel (France), 1993. Leiden: Institute of Prehistory. Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 27.Google Scholar
Sampson, C.G. (ed.). 1978a. Paleoecology and archaeology of an Acheulian site at Caddinglon, England. Dallas (TX): Southern Methodist University.Google Scholar
Sampson, C.G. (ed.). 1978b. Introduction, in Sampson, (ed.) 1978a: 3–15.Google Scholar
Sampson, C.G. (ed.). 1978c. Excavation and stratigraphy of the Rackley Site, in Sampson, (ed.) 1978a: 29–38.Google Scholar
Singer, R., Gladfelter, B.C. & Wymer, J.J. 1993. The Lower Paleolithic site at Hoxne, England. Chicago (IL): Chicago Universily Press.Google Scholar
Smith, R.A. 1918. On flint implements from the Palaeolithic floor at Whipsnade, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries 31: 39–50.Google Scholar
Smith, W.G. 1879. On Palaeolithic implements from the valley of the Lea, Journal of the Anthropological Institute 8: 275–8.Google Scholar
Smith, W.G. 1883. Primeval man in the valley of the Lea, Transactions of the Essex Field Club 3: 102–47.Google Scholar
Smith, W.G. 1884. Primeval man in the valley of the Lea, Journal of the Anthropological Institute 13: 36–8, 83–91, 125–37.Google Scholar
Smith, W.G. 1887. On a Palaeolithic floor at northeast London, Essex Naturalisrt 1: 357–84.Google Scholar
Smith, W.G. 1889. Palaeolithic implements from the hills near Dunstable, Nature 40: 141.Google Scholar
Smith, W.G. 1892. Primitive man: a Palaeolithic floor near Dunstable, Natural Science 1: 9, 664–70.Google Scholar
Smith, W.G. 1894. Man the primeval savage: his haunts and relics from the hilltops of Bedfordshire to Blackwall. London: Stanford.Google Scholar
Smith, W.G. 1904. Dunstable: its history and surroundings. London: Homeland Association Google Scholar
Smith, W.G. 1912. Unpublished letter, 8 December, from Worthington Smith to Reginald Smith. British Museum archives.Google Scholar
Smith, W.G. 1913a. Unpublished letter, 2 January, from Worthington Smith to Reginald Smith. British Museum archives.Google Scholar
Smith, W.G. 1913b. Unpublished letter, 4 February, from Worthington Smith to Reginald Smith. British Museum archives.Google Scholar
Smith, W.G. 1916. Notes on the Palaeolithic floor near Caddington, Archaeoiogia 67: 49–74.Google Scholar
Smith, W.G. N.d. List of Palaeolithic implements. Unpublished manuscript held in the archives of Luton Museum.Google Scholar
Spurrell, F.J.C. 1880a. On the discovery of a place where Palaeolithic implements were made at Crayford, Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 36: 544–8.Google Scholar
Spurrell, F.J.C. 1880b. On implements and chips from the floor of a Palaeolithic workshop, Archaeological Journal: 37: 294–9.Google Scholar
Stuart, A.J., Wolff, R.G. Lister, A.M. Singer, R. & Egginton, J.M 1993. Fossil vertebrates, in Singer, et al. (ed.): 163–206.Google Scholar
Summerfield, M.A. 1991. Global geomorphology. Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
Turner, C. & Kerney, M.P. 1971. A note on the age of the Freshwater Beds of the Clacton Channel, Journal of the Geological Society of London: 127: 87–93.Google Scholar
White, H. 1953. An antiquary of note, Bedfordshire Magazine 3: 341–4.Google Scholar
White, M.J. 1996. Biface variability and human behaviour: a study from south-eastern England. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
White, M.J., Lewis, S.G. & Mcnabb, J. Forthcoming. Excavations at the earlier Palaeolithic site at Whipsnade, Hertfordshire, 1992–4.Google Scholar
Wymer, J.J. 1980. The excavation of the Acheulean site at Gaddesden Row, Bedfordshire Archaeological Journal 14: 2–4.Google Scholar
Wymer, J.J. 1985. Palaeolithic sites of East Anglia. Norwich: Geobooks.Google Scholar