Twisted Handaxes in Middle Pleistocene Britain and their Implications for Regional-scale Cultural Variation and the Deep History of Acheulean Hominin Groups

Abstract

A better understood chronological framework for the Middle Pleistocene of Britain has enabled archaeologists to detect a number of temporally-restricted assemblage-types, based not on ‘culture historical’ schemes of typological progression but on independent dating methods and secure stratigraphic frameworks, especially river-terrace sequences. This includes a consistent pattern in the timing of Clactonian and Levalloisian industries, as well as a number of handaxe assemblage types that belong to different interglacial cycles. In other words, Derek Roe’s hunch that the apparent lack of coherent ‘cultural’ patterning was due to an inaccurate and inadequate chronological framework was correct. Some variation in handaxe shape is culturally significant. Here we focus on twisted ovate handaxes, which we have previously argued to belong predominantly to MIS 11. Recent discoveries have enabled us to refine our correlations. Twisted ovate assemblages are found in different regions of Britain in different substages of MIS 11 (East Anglia in MIS 11c and south of the Thames in MIS 11a), the Thames, and the MIS 11b cold interval separating the two occurrences. These patterns have the potential to reveal much about hominin settlement patterns, behaviour, and social networks during the Middle Pleistocene.

Handaxe types, colonization waves, and social norms in the British Acheulean

“…Hitchin meanwhile is the most variable assemblage, significantly different from the other MIS11c assemblage, Swanscombe (rank-sum=1058, p=0.01), though not significantly different from Broom another assemblage noted for its variability (rank-sum=1050, p=0.3). This provides for support for the suggestion that Hitchin is a palimpsest of two different occupations (White et al, 2019). The first two principal components explained around half the variability, 37.57% and 11.5% respectively.…”

“…However, the wide variety of forms at Broom, including both ficrons and ovates from opposite ends of the main spectrum of shape variation, and the presence of asymmetrical pieces not represented in the other assemblages, are difficult to accommodate in variation around a single modal type. The lack of twisted and plano-convex pieces in assemblages with similar ranges of planforms such as Swanscombe Middle Gravels (White et al, 2019), indicates the distinctiveness of these types at Hitchin. The double distinctiveness of planform and edge position in the case of plano-convex and twisted handaxes (overlapping in planform with triangular and cordate handaxes respectively) (Figure 7), shows that these are genuinely different types.…”

“…Handaxes from Hitchin are sub-pointed and feature a variety of forms. Some of the more distinctive are plano-convex pieces with a pronounced profile asymmetry between a flat and a domed surface, typically on more pointed specimens (Figure 2); and twisted pieces which have a remarkable twisted profile, typically on more rounded specimens (White et al, 2019) (Figure 2). There is a possibility that Hitchin is a palimpsest of two assemblages belonging to two Roe Groups (Table 1), one with more pointed forms and another with more cordates including twisted profile pieces (White et al, 2019).…”

“…White and colleagues propose a schema whereby successive waves of colonization introduced different handaxe forms to Britain in different temperate periods between Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 15 and 9 (621,000 -300,000 years ago) (Table 1 and Figure 1). They further suggest that in the sub-stages of Marine Isotope Stage 11 there are geographical differences within south-eastern Britain that are related to cultural traditions rather than clast form (White et al, 2019) (Table 1).…”

Palaeolithic archaeology of the Bytham River: human occupation of Britain during the early Middle Pleistocene and its European context

“…It is now possible to construct a robust framework in which successive phases of colonisation prior to MIS 12 can be isolated, compared and contrasted. Increasingly, temporal variation in stone tool assemblages is being recognised in the British record that is likely to reflect the distinctive material culture of human groups occupying Britain at different times, and in turn reflecting the different source areas in Europe for these populations (Roe, 2001;Wenban-Smith, 2004b;Ashton and Hosfield, 2010;Bridgland and White, 2014;White, 2015;Ashton et al, 2016;Davis and Ashton, 2019;White et al, 2018White et al, , 2019Shipton and White, 2020).…”