Sánchez-Romero, L;
Benito-Calvo, A;
De Loecker, D;
Pope, M;
(2023)
Spatial analysis and site formation processes associated with the Middle Pleistocene hominid teeth from Q1/B waterhole, Boxgrove (West Sussex, UK).
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
, 15
(7)
, Article 98. 10.1007/s12520-023-01790-9.
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Abstract
Boxgrove is a key locale for our understanding of Middle Pleistocene human behaviour in Northwestern Europe. It provides high-resolution evidence for behaviour at scale in fine-grained sediments, dating from the end of the MIS13 interglacial at around 480,000 years ago. Excavations at this site in the last quarter of the twentieth century have provided a large body of interdisciplinary data, comprising stone artefact assemblages, well-preserved faunal remains and paleoenvironmental archives, from over 100 test pits and larger excavation areas. The excavation area designated Q1/B was excavated between 1995 and 1996 and provided a particularly deep and complex record of early human activity centred upon a pond or waterhole within the wider landscape. In this work, we present a new analysis of spatial data from a single sedimentary unit (Unit 4u) at the Boxgrove Q1/B site. We consider the spatial disposition of lithic and faunal materials, fabric analysis and the role of the palaeotopography in their distribution. The results indicate that, although the dynamic fluvial depositional environment had an undeniable role in the distribution of materials, the scale and nature of post-depositional movement are consistent with the artefacts being preserved within an autochthonous depositional context, not reworked from an earlier sedimentary unit or subject to long-distance transportation. These results are consistent with previous analysis which suggests that the overall lithic assemblage can be directly compared with others from the wider landscape in compositional terms to interpret the behavioural controls over site formation behind the Q1/B archaeology.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Spatial analysis and site formation processes associated with the Middle Pleistocene hominid teeth from Q1/B waterhole, Boxgrove (West Sussex, UK) |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s12520-023-01790-9 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01790-9 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Formation processes · Palaeotopographic reconstruction · Spatial analysis · GIS · Open-air site · Middle Pleistocene |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology > Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10173341 |
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