Pleistocene landscape evolution in the Avon valley, southern Britain: Optical dating of terrace formation and Palaeolithic archaeology

Egberts, Ella; Basell, Laura; Welham, Kate; Brown, Antony G.; Toms, Phillip

doi:10.1016/j.pgeola.2020.02.002

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…While there has been much work over the past two decades to address this (e.g. Ashton & Hosfield, 2010;Bates et al, 2004;Briant et al, 2006Briant et al, , 2009bBriant et al, , 2012Davis, 2013Davis, , 2014Davis et al, 2016;Egberts, 2016;Egberts et al, 2020;Harding et al, 2012;Hatch, 2014;Hatch et al, 2017;Hosfield, 1999;Wenban-Smith & Hosfield, 2001;Westaway et al, 2006), to lesser or greater extents, these problems remain. However, this synthesis uses the latest geological studies with a more robust framework and provides the most extensive study to date of the artefacts and the contexts from which they derive.…”

Section: Context Terrace Stratigraphy and Chronologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A significant number of handaxes have also been recovered from the gravels of the River Avon, particularly from Wood Green (Bridgland & Harding, 1987;, Bemerton and Milford Hill (Harding & Bridgland, 1998). Recent work by Egberts et al (2020) indicates that the gravels at Bemerton are the oldest (pre-MIS 10), followed by Wood Green (MIS 10/9). The Wood Green and Bemerton assemblages include approximately 400 and 80 handaxes respectively (Wessex Archaeology, 1993).…”

Section: The River Test and Its Regional Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, a number of recent studies have begun to overcome these issues (e.g. Ashton & Hosfield, 2010;Bates et al, 2004Bates et al, , 2007Briant et al, 2006Briant et al, , 2009bBriant et al, , 2012Davis, 2013Davis, , 2014Davis et al, 2016;Egberts, 2016;Egberts et al, 2020;Harding et al, 2012;Hatch, 2014;Hatch et al, 2017;Hosfield, 1999;Westaway et al, 2006), so that it is now possible to start to consider aspects of the region's archaeological record in the context of broader debates in Palaeolithic archaeology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lower and Early Middle Palaeolithic of Southern Britain: the Evidence from the River Test

et al. 2021

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Fluvial terrace sequences of Pleistocene rivers provide a chronological framework for examining broad patterns of change in the Palaeolithic record. Collections of artefacts recovered from individual terraces represent a time-averaged sample of the range of lithic technology discarded in a river valley over thousands of years. These can be compared and contrasted with other terraces to identify the timing of the appearance of key technological innovations and chronological variation in lithic technology. In Britain, the punctuated nature of human presence during the Pleistocene means that archaeological variation across a river terrace sequence is likely to relate in part to successive phases of occupation by human groups derived from populations in mainland Europe. This paper presents an analysis of the Lower and early Middle Palaeolithic record of the River Test, Hampshire, which was a tributary river of the former River Solent. The timing of the first appearance of handaxes and Levallois technology is established, and chronological patterning in handaxe typology and technology is identified. The Test record is placed in its regional context, and its implications for understanding the human occupation history of northwest Europe during the Middle Pleistocene are discussed.

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Section: Context Terrace Stratigraphy and Chronologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The River Test and Its Regional Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lower and Early Middle Palaeolithic of Southern Britain: the Evidence from the River Test

et al. 2021

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“…As the most enduring part of the Paleolithic record, lithics embedded within loess profiles additionally have the potential to inform the loess interpretations and provide crosschecks against paleoenvironmental reconstructions. This should not be extended to using lithic types as chronological tie‐points for loess sequences, which can lead to circular argumentation (Egberts et al ., 2020). Rather, by regarding the embedded lithics as artificially inserted clasts within the sedimentological sequence, the suite of lithic taphonomic analyses that have been developed can be employed.…”

Section: Gathering Dust: New Directions For Quaternary Loess and The Paleolithicmentioning

confidence: 99%

The past in dust: current trends and future directions in Pleistocene geoarcheology of European loess

Chu

Nett

2021

J Quaternary Science

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Loess is a main archive of Pleistocene landscapes and environments and therefore has an important connection to the preservation and interpretation of Paleolithic sites. In Europe, anthropogenic sites have been found in loess because of past local occupation. At one extreme, sites are well preserved with minimal disturbance often accompanied by embedded proxies to estimate ecological parameters. On the other hand, loess deposits have undergone post‐depositional alterations such as weathering, pedogenesis or bioturbation due to changing environmental conditions or other disturbances that obscure anthropogenic sites. We outline the current state of research and connections between Paleolithic archeology and loess research while introducing a series of subsequent regional case studies as part of a special issue. We also make recommendations for future work to incorporate a wider variety of methods to create more robust inferences on hominin and environmental evolution and their connections.

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“…To reconstruct the geochronology is of utmost importance for determining the sequence of events in a cut-and-fill system and to recognize the forces driving the system. Dating techniques that utilize cosmogenic nuclides (e.g., Huang et al, 2019), optically stimulated luminescence (e.g., Egberts et al, 2020), radiocarbon (e.g., Foster et al, 2009), U-Th isotopes (Kock et al, 2009), and biostratigraphy (e.g., White et al, 2017) are widely used to detect terrace chronologies. However, establishing the sequence of events in a cut-and-fill system can be hampered by erosion and weathering of the terrace fills, which leaves behind laterally and vertically discontinuous and fragmented archives (Lewin & Macklin, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Pleistocene complex cut-and-fill sequences in the Alps

et al. 2022

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Cut-and-fill sequences are the result of climatically or tectonically induced alternating aggradation and incision phases of a fluvial system. A recently established cosmogenic nuclide chronology of the Cover Gravels (Deckenschotter in German) in the northern Alpine Foreland, which are the oldest Quaternary glaciofluvial gravels and comprise evidence of early Pleistocene glaciations, suggests a cut-and-fill build-up. This suggested cut-and-fill architecture challenges the morphostratigraphy. The Deckenschotter deposits represent a suitable archive for reconstructing drainage patterns, base level changes, and the landscape evolution of the northern Alpine Foreland during the early Pleistocene. In this study, we focused on the highest morphostratigraphic Deckenschotter sites: three at Irchel and one in the area around Lake Constance. Sediment analyses were performed to determine their provenance and depositional environments. The geochronology was established using isochron-burial dating. The results indicate that the sediments were transported from the Central and eastern Central Alps, as well as from the Molasse, to the foreland and deposited in a proximal glaciofluvial environment. Based on these findings, we propose that the Deckenschotter are cut-and-fill sequences that accumulated in three stages during the early Pleistocene at ca. 2.5 Ma, ca. 1.5 Ma, and ca. 1 Ma. The presence of a cut-and-fill system implies that the regional base level was relatively constant during the early Pleistocene. In addition, the ca. 2.5 Ma glaciofluvial gravels document the first evidence of glaciers in the northern Alpine Foreland. This timing is synchronous with the onset of Quaternary glaciation in the northern hemisphere at ca. 2.7 Ma.

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Pleistocene landscape evolution in the Avon valley, southern Britain: Optical dating of terrace formation and Palaeolithic archaeology

Cited by 8 publications

References 52 publications

Lower and Early Middle Palaeolithic of Southern Britain: the Evidence from the River Test

Lower and Early Middle Palaeolithic of Southern Britain: the Evidence from the River Test

The past in dust: current trends and future directions in Pleistocene geoarcheology of European loess

Early Pleistocene complex cut-and-fill sequences in the Alps

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