The British Lower Palaeolithic: Stones in Contention

by McNabb; John

• ISBN13: 9780415427272
• ISBN10: 0415427274
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-10-09
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Taking as its central theme the issue of whether early Hominins organized themselves into societies as we understand them, John McNabb looks at how modern researchers recognize such archaeological cultures. He examines the existence of a stone tool culture called the Clactonian to introduce the multidisciplinary nature of the subject. In analyzing the various kinds of data archaeologists would use to investigate the existence of a Palaeolithic culture, this book represents the latest research in archaeology, population dispersals, geology, climatology, human palaeontoloty, evolutionary psychology, environmental and biological disciplines and dating techniques, along with many other research methods.

Author Biography

John McNabb is the Director of the Centre for the Archaeology of Human Origins at the University of Southampton

Table of Contents

List of figures	p. ix
List of tables	p. xiii
Acknowledgements	p. xv
List of abbreviations	p. xix
Introduction	p. 1
Where, what and when: the Clactonian in its broader context	p. 5
Strangers in a strange land: the Clactonian problem, outlined and defined	p. 7
Geological and other frameworks	p. 32
The Clactonian sites in their physical context	p. 61
Hominin occupation in the Cromerian Complex and in the early part of the Anglian Glaciation	p. 102
Hominin occupation just before, during, and just after Marine Isotope Stage 11: the Swanscombe Interglacial	p. 132
Hominin occupation just before, during, and just after Marine Isotope Stage 9: the Purfleet Interglacial	p. 162
Hominin occupation just before, during, and just after Marine Isotope Stage 7: the Aveley Interglacial	p. 187
The European scene	p. 216
The story so far	p. 248
Why and how: the Clactonian itself	p. 253
A twentieth-century child: non-handaxe assemblages from before 1900 to 1950	p. 255
Coming of age in the brave new world: the Clactonian from the 1950s to the present	p. 281
The contentious stones	p. 304
How well behaved was Homo heidelbergensis?	p. 346
Epilogue	p. 374
Bibliography	p. 377
Index	p. 407
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