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The earliest record of human activity in northern Europe

Parfitt, Simon A., Barendregt, René W., Breda, Marzia, Candy, Ian, Collins, Matthew J., Coope, G. Russell, Durbidge, Paul, Field, Mike H., Lee, Jonathan R., Lister, Adrian M., Mutch, Robert, Penkman, Kirsty E. H., Preece, Richard C., Rose, James, Stringer, Christopher B., Symmons, Robert, Whittaker, John E., Wymer, John J., Stuart, Anthony J.·2005·Nature
DOI 10.1038/nature04227
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Abstract

The colonization of Eurasia by early humans is a key event after their spread out of Africa, but the nature, timing and ecological context of the earliest human occupation of northwest Europe is uncertain and has been the subject of intense debate. The southern Caucasus was occupied about 1.8 million years (Myr) ago, whereas human remains from Atapuerca-TD6, Spain (more than 780 kyr ago) and Ceprano, Italy (about 800 kyr ago) show that early Homo had dispersed to the Mediterranean hinterland before the Brunhes-Matuyama magnetic polarity reversal (780 kyr ago). Until now, the earliest uncontested artefacts from northern Europe were much younger, suggesting that humans were unable to colonize northern latitudes until about 500 kyr ago. Here we report flint artefacts from the Cromer Forest-bed Formation at Pakefield (52 degrees N), Suffolk, UK, from an interglacial sequence yielding a diverse range of plant and animal fossils. Event and lithostratigraphy, palaeomagnetism, amino acid geochronology and biostratigraphy indicate that the artefacts date to the early part of the Brunhes Chron (about 700 kyr ago) and thus represent the earliest unequivocal evidence for human presence north of the Alps.

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  • AAR has been extensively applied to understanding quaternary chronologies, including identifying early human activity in Europe, formation of terrestrial deposits in the British Isles, speed of local shell midden accumulations, and improved dating coverage in shell midden sites.

    “AAR has been extensively applied to understanding quaternary chronologies, for example, in identifying the presence of early human activity in Europe (29), the formation of terrestrial deposits in the British Isles (30), as well as the speed of local shell midden accumulations (31) and improved dating coverage in shell midden sites (11).”

    From Ancient protein analysis in archaeology (2021) · cites this paper as [29]

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Research works printed but not linked: 29

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Metadata

Authors
Parfitt, S. A., Barendregt, R. W., Breda, M., Candy, I., Collins, M. J., Coope, G. R., Durbidge, P., Field, M. H., Lee, J. R., Lister, A. M., Mutch, R., Penkman, K. E. H., Preece, R. C., Rose, J., Stringer, C. B., Symmons, R., Whittaker, J. E., Wymer, J. J., & Stuart, A. J.
Venue
Nature
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2005-12-14
Volume
438
Issue
7070
Pages
1008-1012
ISSN
  • 0028-0836
  • 1476-4687
DOI
10.1038/nature04227
Cited by
343
References
0
Language
en
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