Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Chronological variations in handaxes: patterns detected from fluvial archives in north-west Europe

Bridgland, D.R.; White, M.J.

Chronological variations in handaxes: patterns detected from fluvial archives in north-west Europe Thumbnail


Authors



Abstract

The use of handaxe morphology as a cultural and temporal marker within the Quaternary Lower–Middle Palaeolithic record has had a very chequered history, and abuses in the past have led recent generations of archaeologist to reject it out of hand. In Britain, however, advances in dating Pleistocene sediments, setting their ages within a framework of ∼11 glacial–interglacial cycles over the past 1 Ma, has revealed several patterns in technology and morphology that must be related to changing practices and cultural preferences over time. These are not predictable, nor are they linear, but nevertheless they may aid understanding of the movements of different peoples in and out of Britain over the past 500 000 years. It is also clear that such patterns are to be expected over a much wider region of the nearby continent, although they might not be identical, or even similar, to those established for southern Britain. This paper extends from explanation of the British patterns to an exploration of the extent to which something comparable can be recognized in neighbouring areas of continental Europe: a baseline for a planned collaborative survey of data from the Acheulean of north-west European river systems.

Citation

Bridgland, D., & White, M. (2015). Chronological variations in handaxes: patterns detected from fluvial archives in north-west Europe. Journal of Quaternary Science, 30(7), 623-638. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2805

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 1, 2015
Online Publication Date Sep 28, 2015
Publication Date Oct 1, 2015
Deposit Date Sep 3, 2015
Publicly Available Date Sep 28, 2016
Journal Journal of Quaternary Science
Print ISSN 0267-8179
Electronic ISSN 1099-1417
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 30
Issue 7
Pages 623-638
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2805
Keywords Acheulean, Early human occupation, Fluvial archives, Handaxes, Lower Palaeolithic, North-west European Pleistocene.

Files

Accepted Journal Article (6.6 Mb)
PDF

Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Bridgland, D. R. and White, M. J. (2015), Chronological variations in handaxes: patterns detected from fluvial archives in north-west Europe. Journal of Quaternary Science, 30(7): 623-638, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2805. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.







You might also like



Downloadable Citations