Early man in the Antian Crag at Easton Bavents, Suffolk

EARLY MAN IN THE ANTIAN CRAG AT EASTON BAVENTS, SUFFOLK H . D . (ZOLLINGS

T h e proof that M a n lived in England before the First Glaciation, the Anglian, is now well k n o w n and has been described from Easton Bavents, Suffolk, by Collings (1974) and from Westbury-sub-Mendip, in Somersetshire, by Bishop (1975), and it is now also certain that Man lived here in the much earlier Crag period nearly two million years ago.

In the earlier part o f t h i s Century, Mr. J. Reid Moir and Sir Ray Lankester c h a m p i o n e d the theory that some of the shaped flint stones, together with the f a m o u s "Rostro-carinates", found in the Crags, were the work of Early Man, but it is now known that, wonderful as they are, they were shaped by Nature and not by M a n .

H o w e v e r , it had long seemed to me that the skilfully worked flints of the Palaeolithic period must have had earlier forerunners and that the Crags were the beds in which to look for t h e m . an idea that was not discouraged by my old teacher, M r . M. C. Burkitt, and was encouraged by Dr. L. S. B. Leakey.

Nothing, however, came to light until 1966, when an undoubted artifact (fig. l a ) was f o u n d in the Stone Bed of the Antian Crag at Easton Bavents, South cliff. This stone is an outer flake of brown flint a little over one inch thick at its greatest dimension, with one naturally flaked surface on the top edge and much of the pebble skin is still intact. The striking platform is heavily b a t t e r e d as if by a rather unskilled knapper and one end has been flaked to m a k e a " p o i n t " . It is somewhat rolled and water-smoothed and has two heavy scratches on the flake surface.

Cove Bottom T h r e e fiakes f r o m an old stone heap in a pit at Cove Bottom are, without d o u b t , f r o m the Crag below the Baventian Clay. T h e famous old fossiliferous C r a g site, Y a r n Hill, is but a short way off. These three flakes were validated as artifacts by M r . J. J. Wymer and two of them are shown here: Fig. Ib. Thick chunky outer flake of brown flint with flaked edges, water s m o o t h e d and with some heavy scratches.

Fig. lc. O u t e r flake of brown flint. The drawing shows both inner and outer sides. T h e o u t e r side has three neatly Struck flaked surfaces. The flake itself was knocked off its core by a clean blow. The edges are chipped but do not seem to show any marks of intention or use, and were likely the outcome of rolling. Highly water-polished and without scratches.

Easton Bavents, Antian Stone Bed Fig. Id. O u t e r flake of brown flint, its greatest thickness being one inch. It seems to have been trimmed down from a much bigger flake and has been Trans. Suffolk

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side-flaked to m a k e a "point". Irregulär white patination on upper and lower surfaces and on some of the shaping fiakes. Some Scratches on outer surfaces and the lower one is heavily scratched.

Fig. 1. O u t e r flake, a little under one inch thick, dark brown flint, pebble skin white, lower surface much scratched. Overall water-polished and somewhat rolled.

Fig. lf. Small, fresh looking outer flake, dark brown flint, neatly flaked to shape on all edges and made into a "point". Unpatinated and the edges still sharp and having some marks of use? What is left of the pebble skin is grey.

Inner surface with some white patinated Scratches.

Besides the above, six other artifacts, not shown, have been found in the A n t i a n Stone Bed at Easton Bavents, and one of them is much like the " p o i n t " (f). It is unpatinated and still fairly sharp and bears some Scratches.

T h e r e is also one thick, sharp and rough unpatinated outer flake of poor quality brown flint. Another one, a thick outer flake that does not seem to have been retouched or used, and three more chunky ones that may have been only slightly modified by Man. T h e Antian Stone Bed is not an easy site to dig, for there is the ever present danger of sudden deadly cliff falls and it allows of no other work than poking and scratching about, but the finding of ten artifacts in quite a short time, shows that the site could be a rieh one and that there may be other kinds still awaiting to be found.

The Date of the Antian Industry T h e importance of the Antian Stone Industry lies in its great age and if pebble choppers should also be found, it might correspond typologically with Bed 1 of the Oldowan Industry in East Africa, the starting date of which is given by D r . Mary Leaky (1979), as "more than 1.7 million years old".

H o w e v e r , the climate of North-Western Europe was not that of tropical Africa, so a warm spell, suitable for Early Man, had to be sought and the answer may well be found in Dr. W. H. Zagwign's (1975) climatic chart (my fig.2), which shows that the Antian Period corresponds, in part, with the warm spell C.5, of the Netherlands Tiglian Period that is dated at about 1.79 million years ago.

Nevertheless, the Scratches on the stones were most likely to have been m a d e in a cool climate of the kind that existed in the East Anglian Thurnian period, which was probably too chilly for Early Man, and thus one is left with the next earlier warm spell, Tiglian C.3, in the Ludhamian or ""Red" Crag, as being the only time then warm enough for early Man, and which is dated at nigh on 2 million years ago.

My sincere thanks go to Messrs. Boggis, the landowners, for most generously allowing me to seuffle about in their cliffs at Easton Bavents, whereby new light has been thrown on the antiquity of Man in Great Britain.

Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 18 part 3.

=fe= b INCHES H.DC. Fig. 1 Some stone artifacts of the Antian industry.

EST I M A T ED MEAN SUMMER TEMPERATURE (10°c)

l|

OLDOWAN EAST ANGLIA I THE NETHERLANDS

(20c)

50°F 68°F

Basedon W.H.Za9wign 1975

Fig. 2 Dating and Climate of the Antian industry.

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References Collings, H. D. (1974). Man W o r k e d B o n e s f r o m the NorwichCragatEaston Bavents. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 16, 309.

B i s h o p , M . J. (1975). Earliestrecordofman'spresenceinBritain.yVarÂŤre253, No. 5487, 95.

Leakey, Mary D. (1979). Olduvai Gorge p. 42. Collins. London.

Zagwign, W. H. (1975). Variations in climate as shown by pollen analysis, especially in the Lower Pleistocene of Europe. In "Ice Ages: Ancient & M o d e r n " . Geological Journal. Special issue No. 6 p. 151.

H . D . Collings, B . A . , 23, Station R o a d , Southvvold, Suffolk.

Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 18 part 3.