Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T15:45:13.072Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Hand-axes from beneath Glacial Till at Welton-le-Wold, Lincolnshire and the Distribution of Palaeoliths in Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

J. J. Wymer
Affiliation:
Dept. of Anatomy, University of Chicago
A. Straw
Affiliation:
Dept. of Geography, University of Exeter

Extract

It is so rare for Palaeolithic artifacts to be found unequivocably stratified beneath glacial till, that the recent report by Alabaster and Straw (1976) of such an occurrence in Lincolnshire warrants some comments. Three hand-axes (fig. 1) were found between 1969 and 1973 in the quarry of Stephen Toulson and Son Ltd at Welton-le-Wold (TF 282884, 5 km west of Louth). They were found in association with fragmentary faunal remains of elephant, deer, horse and possibly Irish Giant Deer (see appendix by Boylan, in Alabaster and Straw 1976). Both artifacts and fauna came from a narrow zone in the Upper Division of the Welton Gravels underlying some 13 m of glacial till. This Upper Division, comprising silts, sands and flint gravels, is considered to have been deposited by periglacial aeolian and niveofluvial processes, whereas the Lower Division contains more water-bedded sands. The conclusion of the investigators was that as the animals represented could not have lived under the severe environmental conditions that prevailed during the accumulation of this Upper Division of the gravel, they had presumably been derived from an earlier temperate, interglacial deposit. The relative concentration of animal remains, the finding of two conjoinable elephant molars and the fairly fresh state of the artifacts suggests that they had not travelled far before coming to rest in the gravel. No sediment was traced in the quarry area which could have been a likely source.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alabaster, C. and Straw, A., 1976. ‘The Pleistocene context of faunal remains and artifacts discovered at Welton-le-Wold, Lincolnshire’, Proc. Yorks. Geol. Soc., 41 (1), 7594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bishop, M. J., 1975. ‘Earliest record of man's presence in Britain’, Nature, 253 (5487), 95–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bishop, W. W., 1958. ‘The Pleistocene Geology and Geomorphology of Three Gaps in the Midland Jurassic Escarpment’, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., series B, 241, 225306.Google Scholar
Boylan, P. J., 1966. ‘The Pleistocene Deposits of Kirmington, Lincolnshire’, The Mercian Geologist, 1, (4), 339–50.Google Scholar
Bristow, C. R. and Cox, F. C., 1973. ‘The Gipping Till: a re-appraisal of East Anglian glacial stratigraphy’, J. Geol. Soc. London, 129, 137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burchell, J. P. T., 1931. ‘Palaeolithic implements from Kirmington, Lincolnshire and their relation to the 100 foot raised beach of Late Pleistocene times’, Antiq. J., 11, 262–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burchell, J. P. T., 1935. ‘Some Pleistocene Deposits at Kirmington and Crayford’, Geol. Mag. Lond., 72, 327–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carpenter, L. W., 1960. ‘A Palaeolithic Floor at Lower Kingswood’, Proc. Leatherhead Dist. Local Hist. Soc., 2, 99101.Google Scholar
Cox, F. C. and Nickless, E. F. P., 1974. ‘The Glacial geomorphology of central and north Norfolk: Comment with reply by A. Straw’, East Midland Geographer, 6 (2), no. 42, 92–8.Google Scholar
Dudley, H. E., 1949. Early days in N.W. Lincolnshire. Scunthorpe, W. H. and Caldicott, C. H., 27–8, fig. 10.Google Scholar
Green, C. P., 1974. ‘Pleistocene gravels of the River Axe in south-western England, and their bearing on the southern limit of glaciation in Britain’, Geol. Mag., 111, (3), 213–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, A. B. and Kellaway, G. A., 1971. ‘Field meeting at Bristol and Bath with special reference to new evidence of glaciation’, Proc. Geol. Ass., 82, 267–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, G. F., Penny, L. F., Shotton, F. W. and West, R. G., 1973. ‘A correlation of Quaternary deposits in the British Isles’, Geol. Soc. Lond., Special Report No. 4, 99pp.Google Scholar
Perrin, R. M. S., Davies, H. and Fysh, M. D., 1973. ‘Lithology of the Chalky Boulder Clay’, Nature, 245, 101–4.Google Scholar
Rice, R. J., 1965. ‘The early Pleistocene evolution of north-eastern Leicestershire’, Trans. Inst. Brit. Geogr., no. 37, 101–10.Google Scholar
Rice, R. J., 1968. ‘The Quaternary era’, in Geology of the East Midlands, ed. Sylvester-Bradley, P. C. and Ford, T. D., 332–55.Google Scholar
Roe, D. A., 1964. ‘The British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic: Some problems, Methods of Study and Preliminary Results’, PPS, 30, 245–67.Google Scholar
Roe, D. A., 1968. ‘A Gazetteer of British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Sites’, Research Rep. Council for British Archaeology, 8, 190201.Google Scholar
Roe, D. A., 1969. ‘British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Hand-axe Groups’, PPS, 34, 182.Google Scholar
Rose, J. and Allen, P., 1976. ‘Middle Pleistocene stratigraphy in south-east Suffolk’, J. Geol. Soc. Lond., 133, 83102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shackley, M. L., 1974. ‘Stream abrasion of flint implements’, Nature, 248 (5448), 501–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, D. B., Beaumont, P., Gaunt, G. D., Francis, E. A., and Penny, L. F., 1973. ‘North-east England’ in Mitchell, et al. . A correlation of Quaternary deposits in the British Isles. Geol. Soc. Lond., Special Report No. 4, 99pp.Google Scholar
Sparks, B. W. and West, R. G., 1972. The Ice Age in Britain. Methuen, London.Google Scholar
Straw, A., 1958. ‘The glacial sequence in Lincolnshire’, East Mid. Geogr., 1, no. 9, 2940.Google Scholar
Straw, A., 1963. ‘Quaternary evolution of the lower and middle Trent’, East Mid. Geogr., 3, no. 20, 171–89.Google Scholar
Straw, A., 1972. ‘Kirmington’, in Field Guide, East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, Quaternary Research Association, 3034.Google Scholar
Straw, A., 1973. ‘The glacial geomorphology of Central and North Norfolk’, East Mid. Geogr., 5 (7), no. 39, 333–54.Google Scholar
West, R. G., 1956. ‘The Quaternary Deposits at Hoxne, Suffolk’, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., series B, 239, 265356.Google Scholar
Wymer, J. J., 1974. ‘Clactonian and Acheulian Industries in Britain—Their Chronology and Significance’, Proc. Geol. Ass., 85 (3), 391421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar