Half-million-year-old horse bones with stone tool cut marks. Evidence that ancient humans in Britain were skilled hunters. They were skilled hunters.
Laura Sánchez-Romero, Alfonso Benito-Calvo, Dimitri De Loecker & Matthew Pope (paper) UK Government (LIDAR), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
An ancient shoreline
Half a million years ago, this location in West Sussex was a temperate coastal plain. A chalk cliff, now buried, stood against a tidal bay that opened into the English Channel. The area was a watering hole on a grassy plain, attracting large herds of mammals and the early humans who hunted them. The site, discovered in a quarry in 1974, preserves a record of life from the Middle Pleistocene, approximately 480,000 years ago. The conditions at the time resulted in exceptional preservation of flint tools and animal bones, which lay undisturbed in soft sediments for millennia.
The human fossils found here are the oldest in Britain and are attributed to the species Homo heidelbergensis. Discovered in 1993, the primary fossil is a partial tibia (shin bone) from a robustly built adult male estimated to be 1.8 meters (5 ft 11 in) tall and weighing around 89 kilograms (14 stone). Two incisor teeth belonging to another adult were found in subsequent years. These individuals, collectively known as "Boxgrove Man," are considered ancestors of Neanderthals and distant cousins of modern humans, Homo sapiens.
The hunters' toolkit
The evidence from Boxgrove comes from the evidence of systematic butchery. Archaeologists have unearthed thousands of animal bones, including those of horse (Equus ferus), giant deer (Megaloceros), rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis), and bear (Ursus deningeri). Many of these bones show clear cut marks made by stone tools, indicating that the hominins were skillfully stripping meat, extracting marrow, and processing hides. One area of the site is known as the "Horse Butchery Site," where a single large horse was slaughtered and processed.
The tools themselves are examples of the Acheulean industry, characterized by bifacial hand-axes. Hundreds of flint hand-axes have been recovered, many in pristine condition. The flint was sourced locally from the nearby chalk cliffs. Wear analysis on the tools shows they were used almost exclusively for butchering animals. The skill of the Boxgrove flintknappers was so advanced that some of their hand-axes are among the thinnest and most finely worked ever found from the Acheulean period. They used "soft hammer" percussion, employing tools made from bone and antler to achieve a finer, sharper edge on the flint.
💡Fun Facts
The fossils of "Boxgrove Man" are the oldest human remains ever discovered in Great Britain.
Scratches found on the two incisor teeth suggest a technique of holding food between the jaws while cutting it with a flint tool.
The Boxgrove hominins used soft hammers made from materials like elephant leg bones to finely shape and resharpen their flint hand-axes.
Among the 50 species of mammals identified at the site are extinct lions, hyenas, and giant deer.
The original archaeological site is in a former quarry and is not accessible to the public. The main fossil finds are in the collection of the Natural History Museum in London, while many artifacts are displayed at The Novium Museum in Chichester.
Admission
Entry to the Natural History Museum is free. Entry to The Novium Museum is also free, though there may be a charge for special exhibitions.
Accessibility
Both museums are wheelchair accessible with accessible restrooms and elevators. Check their individual websites for detailed information.
