This richly illustrated book gives a detailed account of excavations that extended over ten years at Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, following the discovery of a mammoth tusk in 1989. More than 1500 vertebrate fossils and a wealth of other biological material were recorded and recovered, along with 36 stone artefacts attributable to Neanderthals.

The current geography of north-west Europe, from the perspective of long term Pleistocene climate change, is temporary. The seaways that separate southern Britain from northern France comprise a flooded landscape open to occupation by hunter-gatherers for large parts of the 0.5 million years since the English Channel’s formation. While much of this record is now inaccessible to systematic archaeological investigation it is critical that we consider past human societies in the region in terms of access to, inhabitation in, and exploitation of this landscape. This latest volume of the acclaimed Prehistoric Society Research Papers provides a starting point for approaching the Middle Palaeolithic record of the English Channel region and considering the ecological opportunities and behavioural constraints this landscape offered to Neanderthal groups in north-west Europe. The volume reviews the Middle Palaeolithic archaeological record along the fringes of La Manche in northern France and southern Britain. It examines this record in light of recent advances in quaternary stratigraphy, science-based dating, and palaeoecology and explores how Palaeolithic archaeology in the region has developed in an interdisciplinary way to transform our understanding of Neanderthal behaviour. Focusing in detail on a particular sub-region of this landscape, the Normano-Breton Gulf, the volume presents the results of recent research focused on exceptionally productive coastal capture points for Neanderthal archaeology. In turn the long-term behavioural record of La Cotte de St Brelade is presented and explored, offering a key to changing Neanderthal behaviour. Aspects of movement into and through these landscape, changing technological and raw material procurement strategies, hunting patterns and site structures are presented as accessible behaviours which change at site and landscape scales in response to changing climate, sea level and ecology over the last 250,000 years.

Charting the quirky past of one of the most important cities in the world, 'London, A Very Peculiar History' will challenge what you thought you knew about this great capital and blow your mind with things you most certainly didn't. From Roman roads to the congestion charge, this title takes a whistlestop tour of iconic London landmarks and eras, whilst poking its head round the corner of the back alleys to see what's really been going on behind the scenes. Alongside the Top Ten Tourist Attractions you'll find curious recipes for cockney food (such as jellied 'iwz'), descriptions of London's 'lost buildings', and lists of royal residences, famous markets and classic film scenes featuring London landmarks. With humourous cartoon-style illustrations and amusing captions and speech bubbles, 'London: A Very Peculiar History' tells the untold tale of Britain's greatest tourist attraction, busiest commercial district and home to the Royals.

FROM IRON AGE CEMETERIES TO VIKING RAIDS, THE FIRE OF 1666 TO THE BANK OF ENGLAND, GEORGIAN BROTHELS TO VICTORIAN SEWERS, DICKENS TO THE HEYDAY OF FLEET STREET, THE SUFFRAGETTES TO THE OLYMPICS OF 2012, LONDONOFFERS A UNIQUE PANORAMA OF HISTORY OF THE CITY. A NEW, VIVIDLY ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF ONE OF THE WORLD'S MOST EXCITING CITIES. From 450,000BC and the earliest human remains in the Thames valley to the 2012 Olympics, and following the impacts of invasions, revolts and epidemics, this book shows how, against all the odds, an insignificant river crossing became the British capital. In fifteen thematic chapters exploring the lives and experiences of Londoners over the last three thousand years, Londonexplores everything form costermongers to the Krays, medieval Jewish ghettos to Georgian brothels, and the building of the Underground to the destruction of the Blitz. Images, objects and expert text from the Museum of London, together with maps both old and new, shine a fresh light on all aspects of the city's constantly changing story. Pubs and sports grounds, immigrant communities, health and popular religion, shopping, crime and gentrification are examined, along with urban development, planning from Christopher Wren to Patrick Abercrombie, art, politics and major events in London's history. Special 'Survivals' spreads seven show where buildings from London's past can still be seen today. Contemporary cartoons and paintings, startling artefacts and the museum's own reconstructions of ancient markets, temples and bathhouses, make the daily lives of Londoners and the city's chequered history come alive in this book as never before.

The British Palaeolithic provides the first academic synthesis of the entire British Palaeolithic, from the earliest occupation (currently understood to be around 980,000 years ago) to the end of the Ice Age. Landscape and ecology form the canvas for an explicitly interpretative approach aimed at understanding the how different hominin societies addressed the issues of life at the edge of the Pleistocene world. Commencing with a consideration of the earliest hominin settlement of Europe, the book goes on to examine the behavioural, cultural and adaptive repertoires of the first human occupants of Britain from an ecological perspective. These themes flow throughout the book as it explores subsequent occupational pulses across more than half a million years of Pleistocene prehistory, which saw Homo heidelbergensis, the Neanderthals and ultimately Homo sapiens walk these shores. The British Palaeolithic fills a major gap in teaching resources as well as in research by providing a current synthesis of the latest research on the period. This book represents the culmination of 40 years combined research in this area by two well known experts in the field, and is an important new text for students of British archaeology as well as for students and researchers of the continental Palaeolithic period.

The objective of this edited volume is to bring together a diverse set of analyses to document how small-scale societies responded to paleoenvironmental change based on the evidence of their lithic technologies. The contributions bring together an international forum for interpreting changes in technological organization - embracing a wide range of time periods, geographic regions and methodological approaches.​ ​As technology brings more refined information on ancient climates, the research on spatial and temporal variability of paleoenvironmental changes. In turn, this has also broadened considerations of the many ways that prehistoric hunter-gatherers may have responded to fluctuations in resource bases. From an archaeological perspective, stone tools and their associated debitage provide clues to understanding these past choices and decisions, and help to further the investigation into how variable human responses may have been. Despite significant advances in the theory and methodology of lithic technological analysis, there have been few attempts to link these developments to paleoenvironmental research on a global scale.

A top genealogist “shows how genetics helps and how it roots each of us in this magnificent story of Life on Earth in the most meaningful way imaginable.”—Reunite Magazine “What a fine long pedigree you have given the human race.”—Charles Darwin to Charles Lyell, 1863 How distantly are we related to dinosaurs? How much of your DNA came from Neanderthals? How are the builders of Stonehenge connected to great-grandpa? According to science, life first appeared on Earth about 3,500 million years ago. Every living thing is descended from that first spark, including all of us. But if we trace a direct line down from those original life forms to ourselves, what do we find? What is the full story of our family tree over the past 3,500 million years, and how are we able to trace ourselves so far back? From single-celled organisms to sea-dwelling vertebrates; amphibians to reptiles; tiny mammals to primitive man; the first Homo sapiens to the cave painters of Ice Age Europe and the first farmers down to the Norman Conquest, this book charts not only the extraordinary story of our ancient ancestors but also our 40,000-year-long quest to discover our roots, from ancient origin myths of world-shaping mammoths and great floods down to the scientific discovery of our descent from the Genetic Adam and the Mitochondrial Eve. “Having read it I’m still slightly shell-shocked by the range of topics that he covers, from the origins of the universe and life on Earth to the present-day DNA analysis that aims to answer some of our questions about our past. And everything in between!”—LostCousins

William Boyd Dawkins was a controversial Victorian geologist, palaeontologist and archaeologist who has divided opinion as either a hero or villain. For some, he was a pioneer of Darwinian science as a member of the Lubbock-Evans network, while for others he was little more than a reckless vandal who destroyed irreplaceable evidence and left precious little for future generations to assess. In this volume, Professor Mark White provides an unbiased archaeological and geological account of Boyd Dawkins’ career and legacy by drawing on almost twenty years of research as well as his archive of published and unpublished work which places him at the centre of Victorian Darwinian science and society. White examines his work in both the field and study to provide a critical yet balanced account of his achievements and standing in relation to the field today as well as among his peers. At the heart of this book is a detailed study of the circumstances surrounding the Victorian excavations at Creswell Crags, where two celebrated finds became a cause celebre

Cumbria is a land built from stone. Whether it is Hadrian's Wall, Kendal Castle or the beautiful fells of the Lake District – for thousands of years people have found a certain elegance and utility in stone. Nestled amongst these common relics are a multitude of massive stone monuments, built over 3,000 years before British shores were ever touched by Roman sandals. Cumbria's 'megalithic' monuments are among Europe's greatest and best-preserved ancient relics but are often poorly understood and rarely visited. This updated and revised edition of Cumbria's Prehistoric Monuments aims to dispel the idea that these stones are merely 'mysterious'. Within this book you will find credible answers, using up-to-date research, excavation notes, maps and diagrams to explore one of Britain's richest archaeological landscapes. Featuring stunning original photography and illustrated diagrams of every megalithic site in the county, Adam Morgan Ibbotson invites you to take a journey into a land sculpted by ancient hands.