Posted on 10/05/2007 4:25:03 AM PDT by Renfield
Boxgrove
The man who died half a million years ago
In a gravel pit at Boxgrove, just outside Chichester, the remains of a man have been discovered, half a million years old. Only a shin bone and two teeth were discovered, but his position, under thick layers of gravel show that he is the oldest 'man' so far discovered in Britain.
The Boxgrove quarry
The discovery was made in a gravel quarry. The gravel was laid down in a later Ice Age on top of a chalk bed, which is visible in the upper squares. Originally a stream flowed from the cliffs (bottom left, behind the camera), and around this stream, numerous remains of animal bones were found, and also numerous handaxes - and part of a human skeleton.
The Bone
The most famous discovery - a tibia, or shin bone from an early man. Both ends have been gnawed off, probably by a wolf, but it was from a robust individual, very active, and is assigned to the group known as 'Heidelberg man'. Two teeth were also discovered at the bottom of the channel, at least a metre lower than the tibia. The teeth probably come from the same individual, and are similar to the teeth from Mauer man.
One of the flint handaxes found at Boxgrove
This shows very clearly the 'tranchet' tip: a blow had been struck at the top left corner removing a flake from the top quarter of the axe, thus leaving a razor-sharp edge. Over 250 of such hand axes were found in a single season. The associated fauna - notably some voles' teeth, show that the site is to be dated to a period before the 'Anglian' or 'Great' ice age, and should therefore be dated to around 500,000 years old.
Section through the quarry
Today the site is on the flat coastal plain, several miles from the sea to the south, and a mile from the low foothills of the South Downs to the north. Half a million years ago however, the site lay at the foot of chalk cliffs 200 metres high, which have since been totally eroded. Here we see the foot of the former cliffs, top left, with some of the storm beaches thrown up by the sea (right). When the sea level fell, a broad grassy plain soon evolved, a rich habitat for animals and early man. [Poster's note: the picture referenced in this paragraph is missing from the original article]
OK, so my attempted pun fell flat.
I meant 'dating' as in 'romance, dinner and a movie, long walks in the moonlight' type dating.
Unless your 'rodents' refers to "Mickey Mouse" and the Magic Kingdom? ;-)
Cheers!
your pun didnt fail, but my counter pun was lost.
my dating techniques, while not always accurate, generally involve rodents and other small woodland creatures.
Being a feral feline, maybe I got distracted by the thought of all those tasty mice. (Look at the picture at the top of my FReeper home page).
I apologize.
Could you please explain?
no worries, just a couple of mice hunters i guess.
The article refers to bone from a robust individual, very active.
Given sexual dimorphism [the fact that hominid males are typically larger than hominid females] perhaps they made this conclusion from this bone being larger than would be expected for a female of this species. Also, wouldn’t the activity patterns developed in the bone be different for an adult hunting male in his prime compared with those of a female living a less, or differently active way of life?
Those are indeed the types of considerations that I would expect the experts to be using.
There are a variety of shape differences in the bones between male and female, but I don't think the tibia (the article said "shin bone") has many of those.
I would guess that size and muscle markings may have been more important. (But then I haven't studied fossils since grad school, so they may have something new.)
Thank you for that absolutely hysterical link. I am writing a book that takes place in 1902. The French family would have taken regular trips from Martinique to Paris in the previous years, so I think this will be an amusing couple of pages in my book. Cheers, and am I glad I was not wearing a corset.
Cheers!
People need to know that pyroclastic flow did not original with Rosie O'Donnell :-)
Cheers!
Yes the historical novel is about the eruption of Mt Pelee as well as the other 4 volcanos around the Caribbean Plate that were active that year, and the influence it had on deciding to put the Panama Canal in Panama and not in Nicaragua. I have been studying a lot about volcanoes, and plan to make the book as scientifically accurate as I can.
Cheers!
you are absolutely right about using minor items such as beertabs and the like for dating in situ items. in deetz’ “in small things forgotten” Deetz uses items that are obviously trash items such as clay pipes, tin cans, and nails to try to turn historical archaeologists from searching only for big finds and shows how these seemingly mundane items are probally more usefull in creating a description of a site than say a beautiful intact vase or its like.
boxgrove hits:
British Archaeology (Latest News)
British Archaeology | 5-13-2002
Posted on 05/13/2002 7:56:46 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/682947/posts
Oldest human footprints found on volcano
New Scientist | March 12 2003 | Hazel Muir
Posted on 03/12/2003 3:47:19 PM EST by CobaltBlue
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/863159/posts
Early Evidence Of Fire Found
Discovery News | 10-17-2003 | Rossella Lorenzi
Posted on 10/19/2003 7:26:28 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1004075/posts
Tools Unlock Secrets Of Early Man
BBC | 12-14-2005 | Mark Kinver
Posted on 12/14/2005 5:26:31 PM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1540524/posts
Delving Deep Into Britain’s Past
BBC | 10-1-2006 | Paul Ricon
Posted on 10/01/2006 2:18:29 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1711701/posts
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