THE Norfolk coast, in eastern England, has been revealed as the cradle of British civilisation with the discovery of an ancient human settlement from almost a million years ago – the oldest found anywhere in northern Europe.
Stone tools unearthed in Happisburgh, on the North Sea coast near Cromer, have shown that early humans reached Britain as much as 250,000 years earlier than had previously been thought.
“East Anglia Man” lived at the mouth of a large river – the modern River Thames, which later shifted course to the south – cutting through a dense forest, alongside fearsome animals including mammoths, elk with horizontal horns, sabre-toothed cats and hyenas much bigger than those found in Africa today.
More than 70 flint tools and chips have been recovered from the Happisburgh dig and dated, using new techniques based on the Earth’s magnetic polarity through the ages, to between 780,000 and 990,000 years old.
Evidence from pollen shows that the site was inhabited during one of two windows of warmer temperatures during that period, one of them about 850,000 years ago, the other 950,000 years ago. The next oldest ancient human site in Britain, at Pakefield, Suffolk, also in eastern England, dates to about 700,000 years ago.
Though no human remains have been found at Happisburgh or Pakefield, the most likely candidate for the colonists is Homo antecessor or “pioneer man”, a species known from about 800,000 years ago in Spain.
It was not a direct ancestor of Homo sapiens, which evolved in Africa, and the descendants of these first Britons eventually died out.
The discovery, by a team led by Professor Chris Stringer, of the Natural History Museum, and Nick Ashton, of the British Museum, rewrites the history of how early humans migrated across Europe after leaving Africa.
“These finds are by far the earliest known evidence of humans in Britain,” Professor Stringer said. “They have significant implications for our understanding of early human behaviour, adaptations and survival, as well as when and how our early forebears colonised Europe after their first departure from Africa.”
The research, published in the journal Nature, shows that ancient humans of this period regularly crossed the land bridge that then joined Britain to the Continent, to set up home in the inhospitable boreal forests of the North.
These colonists, however, would have numbered no more than a few hundred, and their encampments would not have lasted long. As new Ice Ages made life in Britain impossibly bleak, they would have been forced to flee south or perish, Professor Stringer said.
“My personal view is that the Happisburgh people may not have lasted that long. They would have migrated or died out, leaving Britain to be recolonised. The Pakefield humans would have been new immigrants from the south.”
While summer temperatures were similar to today’s when Happisburgh was settled, they would have been about 3C colder in winter, creating a challenging environment.
“This demonstrates early humans surviving in a climate cooler than that of the present day,” Dr Ashton said. “My hunch is that they had a sort of clothing, maybe more efficient than just a hide over the back. They may have had a shelter, and some fire, but these are questions for the future.”
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