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The Lower Palæolithic Period

Forward to the Middle Palæolithic

(syn; Paleolithic, Palaeolithic)

Appox. 2,500,000 BC to 200,000 BC

First British Ice Age around 500,000 BC and the Second British Ice Age around 400,000 BC

Our early British ancestors, Homo Erectus, began to use stone tools at some point around 1 million years ago. These early stone tools are almost indistinguishable from naturally split rocks and it is not until the development of stone axes, scrapers and other blades can we be sure that these are of human manufacture.

Butchered animal remains found on the East Anglian coast have been dated back 700,000 years proving the habitation of Britain and although actual hominid remains have not been found it is almost conclusive proof that human activity dates back far further than we have anticipated. No doubt the story will not end here! The earliest actual hominid remains, of Homo heidelbergensis, in Britain date back 500,000 years and these were found in Boxgrove, West Sussex in 1993. In addition to the stone tools we now find in relative abundance it is probable these early hominids also used tools made from wood, bone, horn and antler but none of this survives until the discovery of a yew spear head near Clacton dating back some 400,000 years.

Stone tools of this period are of the core type, made by chipping the stone to form a cutting edge, or of the flake type, fashioned from fragments struck off a stone. Hand axes were the typical tool of these early hunters and food-gatherers. This type of tool has become known as Clactonian, after the location where they were first discovered in Britain but similar tools have now been unearthed at many other locations including Swanscombe, Little Thurrock, Chingford, Kelvedon and Tiptree and the Lea, Colne and Roding valleys.

Homo Erectus was a hunter/gatherer effectively living off what the land and nature could provide. It is apparent they lived in social and/or family groups. The earliest Homo Erectus camp fire in Britain dates back 275,000 years and was recently discovered on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. As far as human endurance is concerned Homo Erectus has been the most successful of our ancestors existing for over 1.5 million years and although little archaeological evidence of their being remains one has to wonder how much of what modern humanity has done will still be around in another 1.5 million years?