Hominin glacial-stage occupation 712,000 to 424,000 years ago at Fordwich Pit, Old Park (Canterbury, UK)

Few high-latitude archaeological contexts are older than marine isotope stage (MIS) 15 and even fewer provide evidence of early human occupation during a glacial period. New discoveries at Old Park, Canterbury (UK), provide evidence of both the oldest accessible artefact-bearing sediment in northern Europe and cold-stage adaptation. Radiometric and palaeomagnetic dating places the earliest suggested occupation of this site between 773 thousand years ago (ka) and 607 ka, with hominin presence inferred during MIS 17-16. Two additional artefact-bearing stratigraphic units, dated to around 542 ka and 437 ka, strongly align with the MIS 14 and 12 cold stages, respectively. The latter unit contains convincing evidence of glacial-stage occupation by Acheulean hominins; fresh, unabraded flakes (including biface-thinning) between clearly defined glacial-aged sediments displaying mixed grassland palaeoenvironmental evidence. An historically collected assemblage of more than 330 handaxes is argued to be derived from both the MIS 17-16 and MIS 12 sediments, providing evidence of the earliest known Acheulean bifaces in northern Europe, and re-occupation by Acheulean populations 200,000 years later. Together, Old Park provides evidence for Lower Palaeolithic hominins reoccupying a location over several mid-Pleistocene MIS cycles, early human presence above 51° latitude during a glacial stage and handaxe production in northern Europe from MIS 17 to 16.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Ecology & Evolution
Published
2025-09-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02829-x
Citations
3
Primary Topic
Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
34.04

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article

Hominin glacial-stage occupation 712,000 to 424,000 years ago at Fordwich Pit, Old Park (Canterbury, UK)

Tobias Lauer, Sunghui Kim, Matt Pope, Tomos Proffitt et al.
3 citations
Nature Ecology & Evolution
Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
34.04
article

Hominin glacial-stage occupation 712,000 to 424,000 years ago at Fordwich Pit, Old Park (Canterbury, UK)

Tobias Lauer, Sunghui Kim, Matt Pope, Tomos Proffitt, David R. Bridgland, Geoffrey M. Smith, David Redhouse, Michela Leonardi, Claire Nichols, Carmen Martín Ramos, J. Desmond Clark, J.L. Bates, Anna Mika, Mark J. Sier, Edward H. Williams, Alastair Key, Adela Cebeiro, Finn Stileman
article en
3 citations

Abstract

Few high-latitude archaeological contexts are older than marine isotope stage (MIS) 15 and even fewer provide evidence of early human occupation during a glacial period. New discoveries at Old Park, Canterbury (UK), provide evidence of both the oldest accessible artefact-bearing sediment in northern Europe and cold-stage adaptation. Radiometric and palaeomagnetic dating places the earliest suggested occupation of this site between 773 thousand years ago (ka) and 607 ka, with hominin presence inferred during MIS 17-16. Two additional artefact-bearing stratigraphic units, dated to around 542 ka and 437 ka, strongly align with the MIS 14 and 12 cold stages, respectively. The latter unit contains convincing evidence of glacial-stage occupation by Acheulean hominins; fresh, unabraded flakes (including biface-thinning) between clearly defined glacial-aged sediments displaying mixed grassland palaeoenvironmental evidence. An historically collected assemblage of more than 330 handaxes is argued to be derived from both the MIS 17-16 and MIS 12 sediments, providing evidence of the earliest known Acheulean bifaces in northern Europe, and re-occupation by Acheulean populations 200,000 years later. Together, Old Park provides evidence for Lower Palaeolithic hominins reoccupying a location over several mid-Pleistocene MIS cycles, early human presence above 51° latitude during a glacial stage and handaxe production in northern Europe from MIS 17 to 16.

Nature Ecology & EvolutionVol. 9(10)
Natural History Museum (GB), Seoul National University (KR), University of Leicester (GB), Durham University (GB), Utrecht University (NL), University of Cambridge (GB), University of Oxford (GB), Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (ES), Institute of History (HU), Department of Archaeology (LK), University College London (GB), New York University (US), University of Reading (GB), University of Algarve (PT), University of Tübingen (DE)
Leverhulme Trust, University of Cambridge, Arts and Humanities Research Council, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Natural Environment Research Council, H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
34.04
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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