The earlier Paleolithic occupation of the Chilterns (southern England): re-assessing the sites of Worthington G. Smith.

The earlier Paleolithic occupation of the Chilterns (southern England): re-assessing the sites of Worthington G. Smith. Boxgrove in Sussex has been in the headlines for its human bone('the first Englishman'); more to the research point is itssuperb in-place deposits of debris from handaxe-knapping. This is atimely moment to look once again at the reports of Worthington G. Smith,who a century ago recognized, amongst the scores of sites withriver-rolled handaxes, rare deposits of a more informative character.Palaeolithic sites in the Chilterns, and Worthington G. SmithBetween 1887 and his death in 1917, the noted antiquary an��ti��quar��y?n. pl. an��ti��quar��iesAn antiquarian.[Latin antqu WorthingtonG. Smith (1835-1917) maintained careful surveillance over some 14working brick-pits near his home in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, southernEngland. His tenacity and dedication were rewarded by the discovery ofseveral outstanding earlier Palaeolithic sites - notably Caddington,Round Green, Gaddesden Row and Whipsnade - each yielding a significant,primary-context Acheulean assemblage (Smith 1894; 1916; R.A. Smith1918). The sites were of such high quality that, following Spurrell(1880a; 1880b), Smith was able to conjoin hundreds of artefacts,occasionally reconstructing long reduction sequences. When, in 1968,Derek Roe Derek Roe is a British archaeologist most famous for his work on the Palaeolithic period.Educated at St Edward's School in Oxford he undertook his National Service with the Royal Sussex Regiment and the Intelligence Corps in Berlin. listed only five in situ In place. When something is "in situ," it is in its original location. Acheulean sites in Britain,(1) fourhad been discovered by Smith (Roe 1968a). Today, only a handful of othersites, such as Boxgrove (Roberts 1986) and Hoxne (Singer et al. 1993),need adding to this list; reiterating the value of Smith'sresearch.While there have been attempts to re-locate three of these sites(Sampson 1978a; Wymer 1980; Bridgland & Harding 1989; White et al.forthcoming), it is remarkable that Smith's work has not receivedgreater attention. Gamble (1996) detects an inferiority complex inferiority complexAcute sense of personal inferiority, often resulting in either timidity or (through overcompensation) exaggerated aggressiveness. Though once a standard psychological concept, particularly among followers of Alfred Adler, it has lost much of its amongstthose who work in the British Palaeolithic; a problem fuelled byfrequent and unhealthy laments about the Victorian origins, and hencequestionable analytical value, of many British sites. Most often thispessimistic attitude unjustly includes those Victorian antiquarians whoactually deserve homage for the calibre and rigour rig��our?n. Chiefly BritishVariant of rigor.rigouror US rigorNoun1. of their work.Noteworthy among this small group is Worthington Smith.Unlike most of his contemporaries, Smith emphasized the value ofentire assemblages, retaining even the smallest debitage The term debitage refers to the totality of waste material produced during lithic reduction and the production of chipped stone tools. This assemblage includes, but is not limited to, different kinds of lithic flakes, shatter, and production errors and rejects. (e.g. Smith1883). His records (Smith n.d.) show that he visited the productivebrick-pits extremely frequently - even during the summer break indigging (cf. Cox 1979) - and trained workmen to recognize artefacts, sothat even in his absence minimal material was lost (Smith 1904). Hesupervised rudimentary excavations, often 'cleaning back'exercises at Caddington, and although his recording system did not usethree-dimensional co-ordinates, he took care to record find details andto describe the geology. He always marked the date on which he foundeach piece, information which may have corresponded to (sadly missing)journals (cf. Dyer 1959; Bagshawe 1967), and noted the depth andstratigraphic stra��tig��ra��phy?n.The study of rock strata, especially the distribution, deposition, and age of sedimentary rocks.strat position of most finds made in situ. Much of thisinformation is still available, primarily in his unparalleled List ofPalaeolithic implements (n.d.: hereafter LPI (Lines Per Inch) The number of lines printed in a vertical inch. (language) LPI - A PL/I interpreter for IBM PCs and workstations.ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/mirrors/msdos/pli/runpli1a.arc.E-mail: <rcg@lpi.liant.com>. ) and the folios whichcontain invaluable maps, sections, illustrations and excellentphotographs of the working pits. Moreover, these bountiful recordsrepresent only a fraction of Smith's original archive, as much wasdestroyed by fire during the Second World War (Sampson 1978b). In short,Smith's research represents a pinnacle of Victorian antiquarian an��ti��quar��i��an?n.One who studies, collects, or deals in antiquities.adj.1. Of or relating to antiquarians or to the study or collecting of antiquities.2. Dealing in or having to do with old or rare books. endeavour. Highly respected by his peers (cf. Harrison 1928; White 1953;Bagshawe 1967) he was, in 1902, awarded a civil list pension of[pounds]50 per annum Per annumYearly. for 'services to archaeology' (Dyer 1959;1978).High praise is well deserved, yet we must add the caveat that Smithmade fundamental errors which today mar our understanding of thesesites. Owing mostly to the rough, commercial nature of the evidenceavailable, to the contemporary theoretical models, and to his habit ofworking from photographs of sections, Smith's view of the geologyof his sites was seriously flawed, thus leaving his finalinterpretations open to question. The aim of this paper is to re-assessfour of Smith's published sites using modern geologicalinterpretation, and tentatively to draw some wider conclusions regardingthe nature of the human exploitation of this region.This paper is my first attempt to answer Gamble's (1996)'call to arms' amongst researchers into the British MiddlePleistocene So far, the Pleistocene Series is not subdivided into formal units (i.e., Stages). Several solutions were proposed, and dedicated working groups are presently pursuing an agreed solution. to put away our feelings of inadequacy and to view the oldsites not as lost opportunities, but as resources waiting to be tapped.It is an exploration into the use of such archaeological data, and intotheir potential to contribute meaningfully to our understanding of theMiddle Pleistocene occupation of Britain.The geological nature of the sitesThe sites forming the subject of this paper are situated within a10-km radius of Luton on the northeastern end of the Chiltern Hills Chiltern Hills,range of chalk hills, c.45 mi (70 km) long and 15 to 20 mi (24–32 km) wide, S England, NW of London, extending NE from Goring Gap. Its highest elevation is Coombe Hill (852 ft/260 m), SE of Aylesbury. , thechalk uplands forming the northern watershed of the Middle Thames Basin(Catt & Hagen 1978; FIGURE 1). The chalk in this region dipssoutheastwards towards the axis of the the diameter of the sphere which is perpendicular to the plane of the circle.See also: Axis London Basin syncline, where itforms a steep, northeast-facing scarp scarp:see escarpment. slope rising to over 250 m OD.Tributaries of the Lea and Colne Rivers have cut back northwards,dissecting dis��sect?tr.v. dis��sect��ed, dis��sect��ing, dis��sects1. To cut apart or separate (tissue), especially for anatomical study.2. the long chalk ridge into smaller rectangular blocks. Thechalk is directly overlain o��ver��lain?v.Past participle of overlie. by a number of deposits, including in situReading Beds, although the most common are the superficial deposits In the British Geological Survey superficial deposits refer to all geological deposits of Quaternary age. All pre-quaternary deposits are referred to as bedrock. Superficial Deposits were previously called drift. mapped as clay-with-flints (including clay-with-flints sensu stricto andPlateau Drift: Loveday 1962). Anglian boulder clay boulder clay:see drift. occurs in an arc onthe low ground to the north, east and southeast of the area, althoughice never penetrated the uplands; bifurcating north of Luton, one armmoved down the Hitchin-Stevenage Gap to Langley and Hertford, while theother followed the north flank of the Chilterns escarpment escarpmentor scarp,long cliff, bluff, or steep slope, caused usually by geologic faulting (see fault) or by erosion of tilted rock layers. An example of a fault scarp is the north face of the San Jacinto Mts. in California. to LeightonBuzzard Coordinates: "Leedon" redirects here. For the record label, see Leedon Records. Leighton Buzzard is a town near the Chiltern Hills in Bedfordshire, and is between Luton and Milton Keynes. (Bloom 1934; Catt & Hagen 1978).Smith discovered all of his in situ Palaeolithic artefacts inisolated patches of Pleistocene 'brickearth' emplaced aboveTertiary outliers. (A separate series of derived artefacts was alsofound within the 'contorted drift' at each site.) Much of thebrickearth represented re-worked Terriaries, which Smith (1894; 1916)argued must have been derived from now-eroded higher ground. Accordingto according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. Smith, prior to the downcutting of the modern drainage system Noun 1. drainage system - a system of watercourses or drains for carrying off excess watersystem - instrumentality that combines interrelated interacting artifacts designed to work as a coherent entity; "he bought a new stereo system"; "the system consists of a , thisbrickearth had formed a continuous stratum over the entire ChilternHills, providing a dry, stable land-surface for hominids; a land-surfacehe otherwise termed the 'Palaeolithic floor'. Theimplementiferous brickearths at his main sites were consequently arguedto represent localized remnants of this living-floor, which heextrapolated from their isolated hilltops to cover the entire regionintersected at points by lakes, ponds and swamps. The most importantimplication is that Smith believed the floor to be an extensive,sub-horizontal phenomenon, yielding contemporaneous artefact See artifact. assemblages(Smith 1894; 1916). When Smith encountered artefacts at more than onedepth at a site (e.g. at Gaddesden Row and Whipsnade), he interpretedhis finds as the remains of several floors, separated by periods duringwhich brickearth continued to accumulate locally, but humans were absent(Smith 1916; R.A. Smith 1918).Smith's interpretation of the formation and extent of thebrickearths, contradicted by modern geological research, today cannot besustained. The brickearths, interpreted by Smith as a widespreaddeposit, actually represent the separate infillings of individualfunnel- or basin-shaped dolines (Avery et al. 1982; Catt 1978): hollows,usually formed through dissolution and collapse of the Chalk (Bridgland& Harding 1989; Summerfield 1991), that are often associated withswallow-holes (Barrow 1919; Catt et al. 1978). There never was acontinuous, sub-horizontal brickearth floor covering the Chilterns, butrather many 'floors', each a discrete, doline-confined entity.Yet, even with these new assessments regarding the overall nature of thesites, understanding the precise genesis of the dolines and the age,nature and origin of their contained sediments remains more elusive.Catt et al. (1978) have proposed that doline formation in theChilterns depended on two climatically driven processes - the melting ofthe permafrost permafrost,permanently frozen soil, subsoil, or other deposit, characteristic of arctic and some subarctic regions; similar conditions are also found at very high altitudes in mountain ranges. at the end of glacial events, or heavy rainfall duringwet temperate phases both capable of providing the water necessary todrain locally into and break down the chalk. A logical corollary of thishypothesis is that the brickearths infilling the dolines belong to thewarm, wet events succeeding, or contemporary with, their formation.Evidence for further localized solution and collapse after the hollowshad begun to infill (Catt et al. 1978: 139) supports this notion andsuggests continued high run-off levels. The lithology li��thol��o��gy?n.1. The gross physical character of a rock or rock formation.2. The microscopic study, description, and classification of rock. of the brickearthscomplements this proposal: the fine-grained laminated structure impliesa low-energy hydraulic emplacement, probably erosion and secondarydeposition of the surrounding deposits by transient streams and sheetsof water during warm conditions with high-moderate rainfall (Catt 1978).The lack of permanent rivers on the Chiltern uplands effectivelyprecludes a major fluvial flu��vi��al?adj.1. Of, relating to, or inhabiting a river or stream.2. Produced by the action of a river or stream.[Middle English, from Latin element and the virtual absence of largeclasts in the brickearth argues against solifluction so��li��fluc��tion?n.The slow, downhill movement of soil or other material in areas typically underlain by frozen ground.[Latin solum, soil + Latin or othermass-movement (Catt 1978: 45). The development of brickearths duringglacial conditions, from anything other than primary loess, ispractically negated by the restrictive effects of permafrost (Catt etal. 1978) and while some brickearths do contain a loess component, thisis nearly all reworked from outlying primary loess deposits (Avery etal. 1982). The overall impression is that the formation of dolines andtheir subsequent infilling by brickearth is fairly typical ofinterglacial in��ter��gla��cial?adj.Occurring between glacial epochs.n.A comparatively short period of warmth during an overall period of glaciation. periods with high-moderate rainfall (Catt 1978: 46; Catt etal. 1978: 140). Yet, significant infilling is unlikely to occur duringthe height of an interglacial as dense woodland would stabilize thesurface and restrict sheetwash and erosion (Catt 1978).The sheet gravels and contorted drift immediately overlying overlyingsuffocation of piglets by the sow. The piglets may be weak from illness or malnutrition, the sow may be clumsy or ill, the pen may be inadequate in size or poorly designed so that piglets cannot escape. thebrickearths are commonly accepted as evidence of cold conditions (cf.Sampson 1978a). Their mode of deposition was probably by solifluction orother mass movement processes with evidence of (?later) cryoturbation(Avery et al. 1982: 171).The mechanisms invoked by Catt (1978) to explain the formation of thebrickearths imply that the dolines filled gradually, if somewhatepisodically, over fairly long periods (cf. Barrow 1919). As actualsedimentation rates are unknown and the dolines are of different sizes,the various brickearth sequences are unlikely to represent equal amountsof time. Precisely which Pleistocene interglacial or interglacials arerepresented is also open to debate. With the exception of Caddington(which contains derived Anglian (OIS Noun 1. OIS - agency that oversees the intelligence relationships of the Treasury's offices and bureaus and provides a link between the Intelligence Community and officials responsible for international economic policyOffice of Intelligence Support 12) loess and must postdate To designate a written instrument, such as a check, with a time or date later than that at which it is really made. thisevent; Avery et al. 1982) the sites could potentially belong to anyinterglacial. The current consensus that humans were absent from Britainduring the last-interglacial (OIS 5e: Ashton forthcoming) furthersuggests that the sites are at least of penultimate interglacial age.This leaves OIS 13, 11, 9 or 7 as feasible options.If lined with impermeable impermeable/im��per��me��a��ble/ (-per��me-ah-b'l) not permitting passage, as of fluid. im��per��me��a��bleadj.Impossible to permeate; not permitting passage. clays, or filled with brickearth with aclay content sufficient to prevent percolation percolation/per��co��la��tion/ (per?kah-la��shun) the extraction of soluble parts of a drug by passing a solvent liquid through it. , the Chiltern dolinesformed semi-permanent lakes (Catt et al. 1978) around which hominidsgathered and left artefactual adj. 1. of or pertaining to an artefact.2. made by human actions.Adj. 1. artefactual - of or relating to artifactsartifactual evidence of their presence. Once abandonedon the margins and sloping sides of the dolines, these artefacts weregently covered by later silting-up of the depressions; many may be insitu. The dip of the infilling deposits would have followed the contoursof the underlying depressions and sediments (Bridgland & Harding1989; White et al. forthcoming), and would therefore have been slopednear to the doline margins, only flattening out towards the centre ofthe depression. Artefacts incorporated into these features wouldtherefore have followed the dip of the doline margins and infillingsediments to form sloping rather than horizontal floors. Horizontallayers of artefacts, as postulated by Smith, should only occur in thevery centre of the water basin (an unlikely position to find artefacts)or after the doline had become choked and the slope eradicated.The modern geological synthesis for brickearth formation in theChilterns conceals major consequences for our understanding of theearlier Palaeolithic archaeology of the region. The remainder of thispaper will explore those consequences, and suggest how a revisedunderstanding of the context of the archaeology might open up thisvaluable series of sites for wider archaeological discussion.Caddington (TL 055193)Caddington was Smith's flagship site in the Chilterns (Smith1889; 1892; 1894; 1904), which he monitored for nearly 30 years (for afine summary of Smith's research at Caddington see Sampson 1978a).Smith observed seven brickpits at Caddington, although his majorpublished work (1894) concentrates on the most prolific, Pit C or the'Cottages Site'. The sections from several faces in Pit C arereproduced in FIGURE 2. In most of the pits around Caddington he found asimilar sequence: up to 50 ft of brickearth (Strata F and H) overlain by'contorted drift' (C and B) and sometimes by sheet gravels(E). Near the top of the brickearths he found, at comparable heights indifferent pits, in situ artefact horizons (G). Together these horizonsprovided the basis for his supposed Palaeolithic floor. Over 500conjoining pieces were recovered from the 'floor', althoughthe spatial distance and lapse in time (sometimes years) between theconjoining finds (Smith 1894: 127) indicate that some relocation mighthave occurred. (Without accurate knowledge of digging rates anddirections, the spatial and temporal intervals between conjoining findsmay still be a consequence of the excavation methods.) Derived, abradedartefacts were also found within the contorted drift, with a'second floor' containing white patinated material apparentlypresent in the sheet gravels.The validity of the 'second floor', at the Cottages site atleast, has been challenged by Bradley & Sampson (1978). Usingsimilarities in the morphometric properties of the artefacts combinedwith the high correspondence in find rates/distribution of the floormaterial and the extant white artefacts, these authors assert that muchof the white material was actually found in the brickearths, not in thesheet gravels. The artefacts really contained within the sheet gravel,they suggest, were derived during the deposition of the gravels from alocation (?part of the floor) further upslope; they are unlikely to haveformed a large group. This conclusion is certainly consistent withSmith's reports of 'white or white marbled' artefactsfrom the floor, and the statement that he had seen 'no actualworking place in the [sheet gravel] deposits' (1894: 112). Theconfusion, it seems, arises from later workers simply assuming that allthe white material must have originated in the sheet gravels.The similarities in the sequences at the different Caddingtonbrick-pits led Smith to interpret his finds as remnants of a continuous,undulating living-floor intersected by a large discontinuous discontinuous/dis��con��tin��u��ous/ (dis?kon-tin��u-us)1. interrupted; intermittent; marked by breaks.2. discrete; separate.3. lacking logical order or coherence. system oflakes, ponds or bogs (Smith 1894). In the frontispiece map to Man theprimeval pri��me��val?adj.Belonging to the first or earliest age or ages; original or ancient: a primeval forest.[From Latin pr savage the working pits are marked as islets in an otherwiseswampy landscape. Humans supposedly lived on this land-surface for aconsiderable length of time, until they were eventually driven out bythe cold conditions represented by the contorted drift. From the moderngeological model for the area, we must conclude that Smith actuallyreversed the true situation: the areas rich in artefacts represent thefillings of separate lakes and ponds formed in dolines, while theland-surfaces that once existed between them are largely missingpresumably pre��sum��a��ble?adj.That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the disaster. stripped and truncated by later slope activity. Indeed, manyof the ochreous and abraded artefacts from the contorted drift atCaddington and other Chiltern sites may represent artefacts discarded onthe original land-surface and later incorporated into this solifluctiondeposit.There are several hints in Man the primeval savage that Smithactually noticed the sloping nature of the brickearths at Caddington,but failed to recognize the significance of this observation,attributing it to local undulations on the Palaeolithic land-surface.These 'undulations' may be why he never proposed the existenceof several floors in the brickearth at Caddington. A clear indicationcomes from figure 48 (1894: 79; partly reproduced in Section 2 of FIGURE2) where, over a distance of 30 ft, the floor descends by 6 ft. InCampbell & Sampson's (1978) interpolated juxtapositions ofSmith's sections (re-located using recorded depths and photographswith suitable landmarks) the floor clearly slopes towards the southeast,into the centre of the pit. The edge of the doline would therefore havebeen to the northwest; the left-hand side left-hand siden → izquierdaleft-hand sideleft n → linke Seite fleft-hand siden → lato or of FIGURE 2. Sections 1, 3 and4 all show the sequence in strike section, with the slope concealed andthe strata appearing deceptively horizontal. Only section 2 runs almostperpendicular to the strike, about 2 m from sections 3 and 4, thusrevealing an apparent dip. As no surviving photographs exist of Section1, its position on this diagram is speculative; the localized presenceof desiccation des��ic��ca��tionn.The process of being desiccated.desic��ca cracks in these brickearths suggests that drying-out hadoccurred at this spot, perhaps indicating a position closer to thedoline margins than Campbell & Sampson postulate postulate:see axiom. .Excavations by Sampson & Campbell in 1971 failed to locateSmith's original floor, but did reveal an important Pleistocenesequence at another location, the Rackley Site, 150 m south of theCottages Site (Sampson 1978c). Bore-holes sunk at 10-m intervals betweenthe two areas indicated the presence of separate basins (Campbell &Sampson 1978), demonstrating that the new excavations did not reveal alateral continuation of the Cottages sequence and that the two sequencesmight not be contemporary. Sedimentological comparisons between samplesfrom Rackley and brickearth adhering to Cottages artefacts, however,showed a good correspondence between the top of the Rackley sequence andthe Cottages floor. A similar correlation between the final brickearthsat Rackley and those from the Cottages floor was also seen in the smallbut highly integral pollen assemblages from the two sites (Campbell& Sampson 1978; Campbell & Hubbard 1878). Both analyses, then,suggest that the Rackley and Cottages dolines were probably activeduring the same warm stage, but that the majority of the Rackleysequence provides evidence for events prior to the formation of theCottages Site floor. However, the suggestion that Caddington belongs tothe last interglacial (Campbell & Hubbard 1978) must be considereddoubtful, given the greater complexity revealed by the marine oxygenisotope curve and the lack of any other evidence for humans in Britainduring this period.Palynological analysis revealed an interesting environmentalsequence. Throughout the Rackley deposits the environment was becomingmore open, with increasingly higher proportions of open-ground herbs,grasses and pine inversely correlating with the amount of oak (Campbell& Hubbard 1978: 49-51, figure 5.2). By the time the Cottages floorwas laid down, the immediate locale hosted a mosaic environment withopen grassland flanked by mixed woodland (Catt et al. 1978; Campbell& Hubbard 1978). High elm counts in the floor sample were attributedto this species' affinity to wet environments, suggesting dampconditions at this time. Insect-pollinated aquatic species were noted inthe Rackley sequence, further indication of marsh or pond conditions. Amassive increase in pine at the top of the Rackley sequence mightsuggest a late interglacial date, although Campbell & Hubbard (1978)preferred to ascribe this to derivation from underlying deposits.The available evidence suggests that hominids were active atCaddington for a short period when the local environment had become moreopen. The fact that the floor occurred as a thin lens, with reason todoubt the existence of a true second floor, further implies that thehuman occupation was brief and intensive. The absence of artefacts inthe Rackley doline or lower down in the very deep Cottages site sequencesuggests that humans were not present earlier, when the area was moredensely wooded. Only with the thinning of the 'wooded curtain'(Gamble 1995) surrounding the upland water basins did hominidsapparently make their first excursions into the area; by then the smallRackley doline was largely choked with sediment while the adjacentCottages doline formed a deep, probably ponded, depression. It istempting to infer from the pollen evidence that the Caddington sequencerecords a climatic deterioration.Round Green (TL 101226)This site, situated in Mardle's Pit, Round Green, was a smallcommercial pit with two separate phases of extraction during the 1880sand the 1900s (Cox 1979: 88). Although only the later phase was highlyproductive, Smith knew of the site for 27 years without revealing itsexistence (Smith 1912). This secrecy was induced by Smith'sexperiences at Stoke Newington Coordinates: Note: For an area with a similar name, see Newington, in the London Borough of Southwark.Stoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. (Smith 1879; 1884; 1887), where heconsidered that the avidity avidity/avid��i��ty/ (ah-vid��i-te)1. the strength of an acid or base.2. in immunology, an imprecise measure of the strength of antigen-antibody binding based on the rate at which the complex is formed. Cf. of collectors had destroyed his work (Smith1916: 68). With a total monopoly on the site for almost three decades,and the services of diggers Diggers,members of a small English religio-economic movement (fl. 1649–50), so called because they attempted to dig (i.e., cultivate) the wastelands. They were an offshoot of the more important group of Puritan extremists known as the Levelers. previously employed at Caddington, Smith wasconfident that he had amassed a complete assemblage (Smith 1912; 1916).If this was the case, then the assemblage is remarkably small,comprising only 282 flakes, 19 bifaces, 3 rough-outs, 11 cores, 13scrapers and 12 miscellaneous fragments (Roe 1968b). Of the flakes, some188 are hard-hammer pieces, a figure not incompatible with the number ofcores, but the 71 biface thinning flakes (McNabb 1992) fall considerablyshort of the 823 flaking scars evident on the 16 surviving bifaces. Evenwithout accounting for earlier removals from the bifaces, some of whichmight be included in the hard-hammer flakes, there is a severe deficitin biface manufacturing debitage. Recent losses cannot account for thissituation there is minimal discrepancy between Smith's (1916: 68)inventory and the extant collection - so the nature of the collectionmight imply: that Smith and the workmen had overlooked a minimum 90% ofthe thinning flakes; that the deposits were more disturbed than Smithimagined; or it might inform us of the distribution and movement ofartefacts around the original pond margins. If the cores were knappedand used more or less in situ but, in concord with evidence fromBoxgrove (Austin 1994) and Barnham (Ashton in press), the bifaces weremore frequently moved short distances around the site for use away fromthe area of manufacture, then the missing thinning flakes might havebeen situated beyond the limits of the doline. Not incorporated into thepond sediments, they might have remained on a different part of theland-surface until they were entrained and sealed within the contorteddrift. Bifaces could also have been introduced from outside the site,although the fact that the artefacts are made of immediately availableflint argues against this (White 1996). Even including the missingflakes, the assemblage is still diminutive, and conceivably the productof only ephemeral human presence.Smith's interpretation of Round Green differed from those forhis other sites. By virtue of a drain providentially prov��i��den��tial?adj.1. Of or resulting from divine providence.2. Happening as if through divine intervention; opportune. See Synonyms at happy. excavated throughthe entire pit from northeast to southwest, Smith had an unparalleledopportunity to observe the entire sequence down to the bedrock (Smith1913a; 1916). The total sequence comprised chalk overlain by some 25 ftof brickearth and capped by a thin layer of contorted drift (Smith1916). Within the brickearth, Smith detected an ancient pond, 15-20ftdeep and filled with 'brickearth washings'. Human activity wasrestricted to a thin horizon on the margins of this pond. Smith'spublished section (1916: 65) is reproduced in FIGURE 3.Smith postulated that Round Green had been occupied by humansthroughout the warm period following the 'Great Glacial', andonly abandoned in the face of renewed climatic deterioration. Theresults of this downturn were two-fold: first, meltwater melt��wa��ter?n.Water that comes from melting snow or ice.meltwaterNounmelted snow or iceNoun 1. floods broughta wash of clayey loam from the putative high ground to the north,sealing the floor and filling the pond; and second, even colderconditions led to the deposition of the contorted drift (Smith 1916:66). In his published section (FIGURE 3) Smith drew the pond incisedinto 25 ft of older, horizontally-laid brickearth with the floor (markedat D) directly beneath some 15 ft of brickearth 'washings'deposited by meltwater. No depression is noted in the chalk below thepond.An original tracing of the sequence at Round Green (Smith 1913a),currently housed in the British Museum British Museum,the national repository in London for treasures in science and art. Located in the Bloomsbury section of the city, it has departments of antiquities, prints and drawings, coins and medals, and ethnography. Archive, discloses a differentstory (FIGURE 4). Smith's original observations, which he states inthe accompanying letter were based on a section cut 'right thru[sic] the place', vary considerably from his publishedillustration. In FIGURE 4, the brickearth does not form continuoushorizontal layers cut by a pond; rather, it fills a hollow in theunderlying chalk, which rises to form the margins of the pond on eitherside. No differentiation is made between brickearth and brickearth'washings', a curious distinction which Smith makes at noother site. The position of the Palaeolithic floor also differs; here itis at the very top of the brickearth sequence, with the underlyingcavity almost entirely filled, and separated by only a few centimetresof brickearth from the overlying contorted drift. Indeed, in places thefloor is disturbed by this later deposit.What made Smith alter his original drawing so? In the absence of hisjournals or working notes we can only guess. I speculate that severalprincipal factors were involved. Some eight years separate Smith'slast recorded visit to Round Green in 1908 (Smith n.d.) from itspublication in 1916. We can assume that the re-interpretation was notbased on new field data collected during this period, as the entire sitewas backfilled with Luton's domestic rubbish as fast as it wasexcavated (Smith 1916; 1913a), effectively eliminating the possibilityof new observations at a later date. Moreover, the published diagram wassurely produced after January 1913 (the date of the tracing), by whichtime operations at the pit had almost certainly ceased (Cox 1979). Itwas Smith's usual practice to work extensively from photographs ofthe sections provided by his son, Arthur (Smith 1894); and while he doesmention photographs of Round Green (Smith 1916), he complained severaltimes about the very rapid backfilling of the site, 'sometimes . .. while digging was going on a yard or two away' (Smith 1916: 68;1913a). Does this suggest that he had no photographs of this extensive,but short-lived section and therefore suffered a crisis of confidenceover the drawing he had made in the field some years earlier, reworkinghis observations to conform to Verb 1. conform to - satisfy a condition or restriction; "Does this paper meet the requirements for the degree?"fit, meetcoordinate - be co-ordinated; "These activities coordinate well" the regional model that he had advocatedfor over three decades? This demanded that the pond, rather than fillinga hollow in the chalk, must have been emplaced into the postulatedblanket of brickearth - which in the final version is exactly whereSmith drew it.The other major change relates to the position of the floor. Itslocation in the original diagram is just below the contorted drift,suggesting that the artefacts had been only superficially covered whenthe pond was buried by these cold stage deposits. However, Smith'shypothesis - that the floor had been sealed 'just as stalagmite stalagmite:see stalactite and stalagmite. haspreserved antiquities in caves' (Smith 1916: 66) - demanded amechanism to protect the floor from the contorted drift. At his othersites, including Stoke Newington, the contorted drift had in placesbadly disturbed the artefactual levels, surely adding to any doubtsSmith had about the position of the Round Green floor on his originaldrawing. To reconcile the supposed integrity and position of the floorwith the climatic events revealed by the geology it was necessary tofind a rapid, gentle mechanism to separate the floor from the contorteddrift: meltwater floods bringing washings of brickearth from projectedhigher ground presumably fulfilled these requirements. The artefactscould therefore have been preserved in situ on the upper margins of thepond by a depth of brickearth sufficient to protect them during thefollowing climatic downturn. These doubts apparently only surfaced whenSmith came to write the site up; he expressed no such reservations inthe letters to Reginald Smith, although he does seem to express someanxiety at the lack of opportunity to check his findings (Smith 1913a).Accepting the precedence of the earlier drawing, it appears thatduring the greater part of the hollow's/pond's existencehominids were absent from Round Green. The recorded find-depths allcluster around 5-7 ft below the surface, suggesting that when humansarrived in the area the once-deep depression had become a shallowsilted-up pool (perhaps similar to Ouzley Pond, illustrated in Sampson1978a: 144). The small assemblage size further implies that occupationwas not particularly intensive. The evidence available, then, suggeststhat humans were active at Round Green for a very brief period duringthe terminal stage in the life of an interglacial pond. The small depthof brickearth sealing the 'floor' attests to continued dolineinfilling, eventually brought to an end by the cold conditions thatfacilitated the emplacement of the contorted drift. It would appear thatthe area was by then completely abandoned.Expressed in this manner, Round Green exhibits a restricted period ofoccupation at the end of a temperate episode, with the concomitantassociation of a fairly open environment. In this way the localconditions during the human occupation resemble those at Caddington. Tosustain this we must assume that no extended hiatus occurred between thehuman occupation and the cold episode; accepting Smith'sinterpretation that humans were present in the late interglacial andabandoned the area in response to severe conditions. In the absence ofany environmental data, this depends on the added assumptions that thebrickearths represent a long period of interglacial time which witnessedenvironmental change, that the pond was active right up to itsdestruction and that no significant truncation of later deposits hasoccurred. This is feasible given Catt's model of gradual infilling,the size of the Round Green doline (135 m in diameter and 7.5 m deep)and the evidence that the pond was almost completely infilled when thefloor was formed, leaving little possibility for significantsedimentation above it. If we reject these assumptions, the humanoccupation of Round Green could potentially belong to any phase of theinterglacial.Whipsnade (TL O3301759)Taken together, Round Green and Caddington suggest that hominids werepresent in the Chilterns for restricted periods that possibly coincidedwith environmental changes. However, this hypothesis is challenged bySmith's other main Chiltern sites: Gaddesden Row and Whipsnade. Atboth, Smith recorded up to eight separate horizontal floors throughoutlarge depths of brickearth (Smith 1916; R.A. Smith 1918), indicating amore prolonged period of occupation. Here, though, Smith'sgeological interpretation for his Chiltern sites is at its mostmisleading.Whipsnade was published by R.A. Smith (1918) using notes and drawingsleft by Worthington Smith after his death. Worthington Smith worked atWhipsnade towards the end of his life; according to the dates ofaccession in the LPI he visited it only six times between 1913 and 1915.He recorded finds from 'Mr Powdrill's Pit' at the'back of Bleak Hall', but later simply referred to the'back of Bleak Hall' (Smith n.d.). Several pits existed behindBleak Hall, all apparently operated by Powdrill & Sons of Luton (Cox1979, yet the published record testifies to only a singleartefact-bearing pit (at TL 03301759). As implements from Caddington areall provenanced to a specific pit, we may assume that Smith would havedone the same at Whipsnade had several pits been productive. Thisimplies that the auxiliary pits either did not produce artefacts or wereopened after Smith's involvement with the site.The published section from Whipsnade [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 5OMITTED] shows eight separate floors unevenly distributed throughout 18ft of brickearth, putatively horizontally laid. The brickearth,overlying clay-with-flints and chalk, was capped by up to 3 ft ofcontorted drift, which in places had disturbed the uppermost'floors'. Small solution pipes filled with contorted driftwere also noted to penetrate the brickearth (Smith 1918: 44). The heightof the bedrock below the surface varied from between 3 and 20 ft which,although not Smith's opinion, indicates that the brickearth lay ina deep depression.Excavations at Whipsnade 1992-4 (White et al. forthcoming), failed tolocate any significant quantity of brickearth in Powdrill's Pit(the pit at TL 03301759), but did reveal important clues. Thebrickmakers had removed virtually all their desired commodity, alongwith the overlying contorted drift, leaving only a veneer of brickearthbanked against the walls of the doline. It appears that in order toremove the brickearth in a safe manner, probably to avoid massivecollapses along the frequent slickenslides present in the deposits (cf.Sampson 1978c; White et al. forthcoming), the brickmakers had used astepped, rather than vertical, extraction method. Single quarry stepswere observed in several relict RELICT. A widow; as A B, relict of C D. pits, including Powdrill's, and aflight of three steps was inferred through augering in another large pitto the northwest (augering in Powdrill's was precluded byindustrial backfill back��fill?n.Material used to refill an excavated area.tr.v. back��filled, back��fill��ing, back��fillsTo refill (an excavated area) with such material. ). The dimensions of the steps were approximately 3ft high by 4 ft wide, suggesting that digging progressed using 3-ftspits. Excavations in an unexhausted doline north of Powdrill's Pitclearly demonstrated that the brickearth strata dipped according to thecontours of the underlying depression.When Smith's eight 'floors' are stratigraphicallysuperimposed on an idealized, schematic representation of these quarrysteps (FIGURE 6), it is clear that, in strike section, the'floors' would appear as discrete entities: horizontal lineson the risers and layers of artefacts on the treads. But, in dip sectionit is possible to (re)construct a single sloping horizon intercepted atdifferent depths. Given the modern geological interpretation of thesesite as infilled dolines, knowledge of how the brickearth was dug, andthe descriptions from recent excavations of sloping strata, it is farmore parsimonious par��si��mo��ni��ous?adj.Excessively sparing or frugal.parsi��mo to see Smith's eight 'floors' not asseparate artefact-bearing horizons, but the same sloping, undulatoryimplementiferous stratum intercepted at different points on the steppedface of the working pit.(2)The true situation is unlikely to be as simple as the accountsketched in FIGURE 6. The postulated single horizon - certainly not auniform straight line - was probably intercepted several times duringthe extraction of the brickearth as the workers moved to different areasof the pit and exposed the sediments overlying the uneven bedrocksurface. The section provided by Smith (1918) is likely to be acomposite, probably based on an actual recorded section, but with'floors' encountered in other areas of the pit superimposedupon it. This argument finds support in the fact that the depths atwhich Smith positions his floors correspond perfectly with thoserecorded in his LPI for bifaces collected over a period of two years(1913-15). Still, we need not envisage more than one implementiferoushorizon at Whipsnade - the sloping 'floor' would haveencircled the entire circumference of the doline, with artefacts lyingat various depths upon it. If Smith's section is a composite, thenthe schematic diagram in FIGURE 6 represents the entire circumference ofthe doline collapsed into a single, idealised section. Moreover, evenwith a vertical rather than stepped working face, in strike section asingle sloping floor would appear at different heights with eachsuccessive position of the working face.In this revised interpretation, human occupation at Whipsnade wasshort-lived and restricted to a single thin horizon. The low number ofartefacts recovered - Roe (1968b) records 169 flakes, 11 bifaces and 6other artefacts would, if representative, support this. While there isno direct evidence from which to assess the timing of the humanoccupation, the position of the uppermost finds, directly below thecontorted drift, might suggest that the single floor occurred towardsthe top of the brickearth sequence.Gaddesden Row (TL 039136)This site, situated in Butterfield's Pit, Gaddesden Row, wasbrought to Smith's attention by a workman employed at Caddington;Smith subsequently observed the pit for the 10 years 190615. The pityielded more bifaces than any other of Smith's sites, yet it hasthe fewest recorded pieces of debitage (see Roe 1968b). According to Roe(1968b), it is likely that much more debitage originally existed, inwhich case the majority may have been lost sometime between Smith'sdeath and the purchase of the surviving collections by T.W. Bagshawe.During this interval the artefacts were 'dumped' in adilapidated chicken-house (Sampson 1978b). Alternatively, the paucity offlaking debitage might reflect the importation of bifaces manufacturedelsewhere, yet the area surrounding the site is rich in flints from boththe chalk and clay-with-flints, giving no cause to suppose that finishedartefacts were regularly transported to the site.TABLE 1. Heights above sea-level for the 'floors' at Smith's mainsites. (After Smith 1918.)site height above sea-level (ft)Round Green 530Caddington 530-595Gaddesden Row 544Whipshade 600The geological sequence at Gaddesden Row bears much similarity toSmith's other sites: a basement of Upper Chalk and clay-with flintsoverlain by some 40 ft of brickearth and capped by 4-5 ft of contorteddrift and 1 ft of topsoil [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 8 OMITTED]. Withinthe brickearths, which Smith interprets as being horizontally, ifirregularly stratified stratified/strat��i��fied/ (strat��i-fid) formed or arranged in layers. strat��i��fiedadj.Arranged in the form of layers or strata. (1916: 53), seven or eight separate floors weredetected. The lowest occurred at about 35 ft below the surface, with thebasal 10-15 ft archaeologically sterile. Further floors occurredapproximately every 5 ft until at 20 ft below the surface a 'truePalaeolithic floor' was encountered; some material from this floorwas conjoinable. Above the main floor were further in situ horizons, thehighest at a depth of about 10 ft, with a distinct layer of brown claywith stained, abraded implements sometimes found immediately below thecontorted drift at about 6 ft.Smith (1916) posited that Gaddesden Row had first been visited byhumans when 10 ft of brickearth had already accumulated over the chalkand clay-with-flints. After this period of occupation the area wasabandoned, a further 5 ft of brickearth accumulating before humansreturned. Smith envisaged this pattern of presence/absence beingrepeated several times until humans were finally driven out of the areaby the glacial conditions that produced the contorted drift. The longestperiod of occupation, at a depth of 20 ft, produced the accumulations ofartefacts on the 'true floor'. The absolute height of thisfloor, at approximately 525 ft OD, compared well with those at the othersites (TABLE 1) and could only have reinforced Smith's convictionthat a single blanket of brickearth had once formed a land-surface forhumans on the Chilterns.More recent excavations have refuted Smith's geologicalobservations. Both Wymer (1980) and Bridgland & Harding (1989) foundthat brickearth was restricted to a steep-sided funnel-shaped hollow,and did not form a continuous spread across the whole region. The latterexcavation also revealed that the deposits sloped according to thecontours of the doline; as graphically illustrated in their publishedsection (Bridgland & Harding 1989; reproduced in FIGURE 8).Bridgland and Harding also detected a stepped method of brickearthextraction (D.R. Bridgland pers. comm.): one degraded step is visible at162 m OD on FIGURE 8. Steps can also be seen in an original photographof Gaddesden Row, taken in 1911 [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 9 OMITTED].In FIGURE 9, Smith is seen pointing to a layer of artefacts withinthe brown clay. He is standing on a step at about 10 ft, with anotherirregular, discontinuous step behind him and to his right at about 5 ft.Immediately in front of him, the inclined riser of another step leads tothe 15-ft level. The importance of these rough, irregular steps is thatthey indicate spits of some 5 ft in height, corresponding suspiciouslywell with the 5 ft separating each of Smith's floors. Tellingly,the caption accompanying Smith's published drawing of thisphotograph (1916: 51) makes no differentiation between the artefactlevels found on the 10 ft step (in the riser/tread junction atSmith's feet) and those on the 15 ft step. They are both simplytermed floor-level. The deepest brickearths were probably extractedusing the bucket and windlass windlass:see winch. seen in the photograph (cf. Smith 1916:49).As at Whipsnade, I suggest that only a single floor existed atGaddesden Row, sloping along the contours of the doline and underlyingdeposits. Smith observed this same floor at various depths and indifferent parts of the pit (where local variation in the angle and depthof the slope undoubtedly existed), but because he believed in ahorizontal stratum of brickearth he mistakenly interpreted it as severalseparate entities. Some support for this proposal comes from thedistribution of the artefacts; the 'floors' both above andbelow the 20-ft horizon are artefactually poor, with very low densitiesoccurring at the lowest, 35 ft level (Smith 1916). If only a singlefloor is present, then the 20-ft level could equate with the majoractivity area, possibly near the water's edge; the artefacts beloware material that slipped downslope n. 1. a downward slope.Noun 1. downslope - a downward slope or benddeclivity, declination, declension, fall, decline, descentdownhill - the downward slope of a hill into the water basin; and thoseabove are scattered activity areas further away from the water. Materialfrom the land-surface outside the doline is probably now incorporated inan abraded state into the contorted drift and brown clay. Anotherpossibility is that none of the material is truly in situ but representsa spread, washed or gravitationally grav��i��ta��tion?n.1. Physicsa. The natural phenomenon of attraction between physical objects with mass or energy.b. The act or process of moving under the influence of this attraction.2. moved into the basin from upslope,with the 20-ft floor a natural catchment area catchment areaor drainage basin,area drained by a stream or other body of water. The limits of a given catchment area are the heights of land—often called drainage divides, or watersheds—separating it from neighboring drainage . Alternatively 20 ft couldsimply represent the depth at which the floor was most extensivelysampled by the diggers. Even with the refits from the main floor, it isdifficult to decide between these possibilities.Unlike the material from his other sites, Smith records remarkablyfew depths for the Gaddesden Row 'implements' (Smith n.d.).Most seem to have been collected by workmen in his absence - the sack inthe central foreground of FIGURE 9 is filled with material awaitingSmith's consideration (Smith 1916) - or from collapsed sections.Smith's notion of separate floors is therefore likely to have comefrom digger's anecdotes, or from chance observations of artefactsin the rough sections around the pit. The rate of finds increasedconsiderably between 1910-13, along with the frequency of Smith'svisits (Smith n.d.). Was a particularly rich vein encountered duringthese years as the diggers moved closer to the doline margins and beganto extract the proposed single floor? The 1911 photograph shows that theadjacent area was being filled with detritus detritus/de��tri��tus/ (de-tri��tus) particulate matter produced by or remaining after the wearing away or disintegration of a substance or tissue. de��tri��tusn. pl. from the new working faces.These had by 1911 extended back to the drying sheds and outhouses OUTHOUSES. Buildings adjoining to or belonging to dwelling-houses. 2. It is not easy to say what comes within and what is excluded from the meaning of out-house. seenin the background of FIGURE 9; perhaps the edges of the pit evidentimmediately to the left represent the edges of the doline, neared, orreached, the previous year.Equally revealing is the fact that both recent excavations failed tore-locate Smith's floors. The modern excavations demonstrated,though, that the brickearth from the main body of the pit had beenextracted (Bridgland & Harding 1989), and that some 3 m of depositfrom the top of the sequence were also commercially removed (Wymer1980). If eight horizontal floors were originally present, then even theremnants of brickearth now remaining in the pit might be expected toyield some traces of them. If, though, the 'floor' occurredtowards the middle or top of the sequence (as its uppermost position,3-4 ft beneath the contorted drift, suggests it did), and sloped fromthe doline's margins to its centre with artefacts concentratedaround 20 ft, then the known extent of extraction probably removedalmost all of it. One way to confirm the notion of a single floor wouldbe to refit artefacts from different levels (difficult to do with thecollections dispersed and the flakes missing).The offered account of Gaddesden Row implies a short, single-phaseoccupation. But what of the ambient conditions? In the absence ofbiological data, there is Avery et al.'s (1982) sedimentologicalanalysis on sediments from Wymer's excavation. These samples showthat this part of the Gaddesden Row doline was primarily filled withderived Reading Beds, probably emplaced by stream activity andsheetwash. No loessic material was present. However, a rectilinear rec��ti��lin��e��ar?adj.Moving in, consisting of, bounded by, or characterized by a straight line or lines: following a rectilinear path; rectilinear patterns in wallpaper. pattern of clay-filled planar voids within the brickearth was attributedto the segregation of ground ice during the infilling of the doline.These clays-filled voids were larger and more frequent in the mid-upperlevels of the exposed brickearth, about 18 ft below the originalland-surface; 3 ft below the brown-stony clay (Avery et al. 1982:166-70). This suggests a cool climate towards the end of thedoline's active existence, which again might carry the addedimplication of a more open surrounding landscape.It should be noted that Wymer's excavation did not reveal thedeepest parts of the sequence, no floors were encountered and the heightof the brown stony clay does not match that recorded by Smith.Furthermore, the sediment analysis (using samples from a steppedsection) apparently did not account for the dip of the deposits. It is,therefore, uncertain how the depths of the sediment samples relate tothe Palaeolithic floor and the provided absolute depths may be ofquestionable significance; although the stratigraphic position of theupper samples show they must be very close to the original top of thebrickearths, even if the heights do not match with Smith's. As noinformation pertains to the basal deposits, there is also no avenue intoany environmental changes potentially recorded in the pit's deepsequence.Acknowledging these limitations, it is apparent that during at leastthe later phases of brickearth accumulation in the Gaddesden Row doline,cool and probably open conditions prevailed in the Chilterns. With thehighest 'floor' recorded only 3-4 ft below the contorteddrift, with at least 10-15 [ft.sup.3] of sterile deposits at the base,we may be justified in placing the proposed single artefactual layerwithin this cooling phase. The brown stony-clay with abraded implementsmay therefore be a mass-movement deposit indicating the advance of trulycold conditions.DiscussionWhat implications do these re-assessments have for ourreconstructions of human exploitation of this region? The followingdiscussion, exploratory rather than definitive, presents severalplausible post-hoc accounts offered to explain the above alternatives toSmith. Like the re-assessments, most remain speculative without newfield data.The re-assessments suggest that hominids were present at Caddingtonand Round Green for transitory periods towards the end of the brickearthformation. Only a single floor is present. I believe, at Gaddesden Rowand Whipsnade, again towards the top of the brickearth sequence. Thesmall pollen assemblage at Caddington hints at the arrival of hominidscorresponding with an opening-up of the environment. Accepting thesedimentological evidence for a cooling climate at Gaddesden Row andassuming that the Round Green doline had not become inactive long priorto the emplacement of the contorted drift, then the late human presenceat these sites possibly reflects a similar transformation in thesurrounding environment. If so, these sites are relevant to questions ofhominid hominidAny member of the zoological family Hominidae (order Primates), which consists of the great apes (orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos) as well as human beings. habitat preference, in particular whether they exploited denseforests (Gamble 1986; 1987; Roebroeks et al. 1992).Gamble's (e.g. 1986; 1987; 1995) view - that humans were absentfrom temperate Europe during the interglacial maxima because of thedense [TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 2 OMITTED] climax forests - has beenchallenged by Roebroeks et al. (1992) who marshalled convincing evidencefor human presence during these periods. But, whether humans wereexploiting the forests is another matter. For the pre-OIS 7 sites citedby Roebroeks et al. (1992), the overall environmental regime is clearlyinterglacial. But the immediate conditions at all the listed sites(TABLE 2), as well as many other early European sites (see papers inRoebroeks & von Kolfschoten 1995), were a mosaic of grassland andopen woodland, precisely the type of resource-rich environment thatGamble (1995) sees hominids as targeting.The suggested timing of human occupation of the Chilterns may thusreflect an avoidance of densely forested temperate woodlands, anotoriously difficult environment in which to make a living (Kelly 1983;Gamble 1993). Plant resources are patchy, seasonal and often requirecomplex processing. Woodland animals are often small, and the largerforest species which inhabited Pleistocene Britain would have been slowto reproduce and widely dispersed in relatively small groups (Gamble1987). Success in forests is largely contingent upon Adj. 1. contingent upon - determined by conditions or circumstances that follow; "arms sales contingent on the approval of congress"contingent on, dependant on, dependant upon, dependent on, dependent upon, depending on, contingent complex compositetechnologies (beyond those currently known to have been used by MiddlePleistocene hominids), intricate planning and time-budgeting and asocial organization supporting extensive alliance networks (Gamble 1986;1987; 1993). Hominids, if unable to meet these challenges, would nothave been able to negotiate the dense woodland (especially the densest'8% forests': Gamble 1992) that likely enveloped the Chilternuplands during the height of an interglacial. Hominids probably targetedthe more open floodplains of major rivers, 'highways' linkingpaths and tracks to other favoured nodes in the landscape. The Chilterndolines, even if locally surrounded by grassland, might only have beenlinked to these highways once a clear path was established through athinning forest cover.The actual age of the sites is critical. If several interglacials arerepresented, then these sites may show similarities in the timing andduration of hominid encroachment into the same area over separateclimatic episodes - evidence for repetitive patterns in the human use ofsuch locations. If only a single interglacial is represented, theChiltern sites record human behaviour in a restricted temporal andspatial landscape (the absence of later in situ archaeologicalsignatures probably resulting from a lack of suitable preservationalenvironments in the form of active dolines). Cooler conditions and/ordeforestation deforestationProcess of clearing forests. Rates of deforestation are particularly high in the tropics, where the poor quality of the soil has led to the practice of routine clear-cutting to make new soil available for agricultural use. need not correspond with the end of an interglacial: theycould equally represent one of the shorter cold episodes evident on theoxygen isotope curve. Some Chiltern sites might represent differentphases of the same interglacial cycle, different dolines active atdifferent times. Even without accurate dates, the evidence does suggestthat occupation was occasional and discontinuous, occurring in briefpulses, rather than frequent and continuous.In an alternative explanation, hominids were regular visitors to theChilterns but centred their activity around the dolines only while theywere fully ponded. This account makes no demands in setting floorswithin the climatic cycle. When not ponded, the dolines would have beendrier, possibly deep swampy features, which might not have presented thesame attractions for hominids; although even when unponded, the dolinemargins could have provided raw materials from the chalk andclay-with-flints, ideal spots for humans to procure and test flint. Ifponded conditions were temporary (cf. Catt et al. 1978), then theapparent brevity of human occupation at each location could have been ahuman response to that.In this account, the locations with evidence of human activityprovide a different picture of hominid habitat preference, thewell-documented importance of water and the resources it affords. Whilethis account makes fewer assumptions and is possibly easier to acceptgiven the evidence, it does not explain why the sites should form pondsonly towards the end of the brickearth sequences, as has been suggestedhere. Potentially this could have happened at any time, depending on thepermeability of the brickearths.Differences in sedimentation rates offer a more prosaic explanation.If initially rapid sedimentation rates slowed, then the lowerbrickearths might only contain sparse artefacts, insufficient in densityto alert Smith or the workmen to their presence. But, the slowersedimentation rates in the upper brickearths would allow for significantbuild-up of artefacts before final burial and the impression of a briefoccupation floor is created by a prolonged palimpsest palimpsest(păl`ĭmpsĕst'): see manuscript. (Wil Roebroekspers. comm.). Yet the meagre mea��geralso mea��gre ?adj.1. Deficient in quantity, fullness, or extent; scanty.2. Deficient in richness, fertility, or vigor; feeble: the meager soil of an eroded plain.3. lithic lith��ic?1?adj.Consisting of or relating to stone or rock.Adj. 1. lithic - of or containing lithium2. lithic - relating to or composed of stone; "lithic sandstone" assemblages from Round Green andWhipsnade still indicate small-scale activity. Reversing this scenariohas different implications. If the initial thrilling of the doline wasslow and the later rapid then the period of human occupation might havebeen very brief; rapid silting-up of the desirable ponded locationscould explain why humans did not return.ConclusionsThis paper has re-assessed four of Worthington Smith's sites onthe Chiltern hilltops of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. Modern geology,evidence from recent excavations and Smith's own work point tohominid occupation there being restricted to brief single-phase eventstowards the top of each brickearth sequence, when cooler and/or openconditions may have prevailed. Of the several mechanisms offered toexplain this proposed pattern we cannot say which - if any! - alone orin combination provides the more likely explanation. At least twohypotheses should be testable through renewed investigations of thesites but, given the scarcity of surviving deposits, new work must posevery specific questions regarding context, geology, environment andsedimentology sedimentologyScientific discipline concerned with the physical and chemical properties of sedimentary rocks and the processes involved in their formation, including transportation, deposition, and lithification of sediments. . As is typical with old sites we are currently left withunresolved, speculative conclusions. Yet, in an age when mechanicalextraction destroys new sites at an alarming rate and urban expansioncontinues to consume old sites, can we afford to ignore our Victorianlegacy, or do we try to salvage what information they might stillcontain?Acknowledgements. Thanks to Robin Holgate (Luton Museum) for hiscontinued support; and to John McNabb whose excavations at Whipsnadeinstigated this study. I also thank Garth Sampson for useful e-mailconversation and permission to use the diagram in FIGURE 2, and to theQRA for permission to use the diagram in FIGURE 8. I am indebted toDavid Bridgland, Wil Roebroeks, Clive Gamble, Paul Pettitt, DanielleSchreve and John McNabb for some very pertinent comments on earlierversions of this paper which have all helped to greatly improve thefinal version. As usual, though, the inevitable inadequacies remain myown.1 Caddington, Gaddesden Row, Round Green, Stoke Newington andBowman's Lodge. Only the last is not the result of Smith'sresearches.2 The slope may subsequently have been exaggerated by furthercollapse, but the premise that a pond in a deep doline would have hadhighly sloped margins, thus affecting the dip of the brickearths,remains sound. Even if we imagine a horizontal floor later becomingsloped through collapse, we cannot find support for Smith'sinterstratified and horizontal floors.3 Smith, expecting a horizontal plane horizontal planen.A plane crossing the body at right angles to the coronal and sagittal planes. Also called transverse plane.horizontal planeof chalk, would not haveconsidered the possibility that the deepest excavation encountered thewalls of the doline rather than its absolute base.ReferencesASHTON, N.M. In press. The technology and site formation of thelithic assemblages, in N.M. Ashton et al. (ed.), Excavations at BarnhamSt Gregory, Suffolk 1989-1994. London: British Museum Press.Forthcoming. Absence of humans in Britain during the lastInterglacial (Stage 5e). Pre-publication manuscript.AUSTIN, L. 1994. The life and death of a Boxgrove biface, in N.Ashton & A. David (ed.), Stories in stone: 119-26. London: LithicStudies Society. Occasional Papers 4.AVERY, B.W., P. BULLOCK, J.A CATT, J.H RAYNER & A.H. WEIR. 1982.Composition and origin of some brickearths on the Chiltern Hills,England, Catena ca��te��na?n. pl. ca��te��nae or ca��te��nasA closely linked series, especially of excerpted writings or commentaries.[Latin cat 9: 153-74.BAGSHAWE, T.W. 1967. W.G.S: a man to remember, Bedfordshire Magazine2: 73-9.BARROW, G. 1919. Some future work for the Geologists'Association, Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 30: 1-48.BLOOM, E.F.D. 1934. Geology, in R.L. Hine (ed.), The natural historyof the Hitchin region: 26-52. Hitchin: W.M. Carling car��ling?n.One of the short timbers running fore and aft that connect the transverse beams supporting the deck of a ship.[Middle English, from Old French calingue and from Old Norse .BOREHAM, S. & P.L. GIBBARD. 1995. Middle Pleistocene Hoxnianstage Interglacial deposits at Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England,Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 106: 259-70.BOSINSKI, G. 1995. The earliest occupation of Europe: west centralEurope Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. In addition, Northern, Southern and Southeastern Europe may variously delimit or overlap into Central Europe. , in Roebroeks & van Kolfschoten (ed.): 103-28.BRADLEY, B.A. & C.G. SAMPSON. 1978. The Cottages site, in Sampson(ed.): 83-138.BRIDGLAND, D.R. 1994. Quaternary quaternary/qua��ter��nary/ (kwah��ter-nar?e)1. fourth in order.2. containing four elements or groups.qua��ter��nar��yadj.1. Consisting of four; in fours. of the Thames. London: Chapman andHall Chapman and Hall was a British publishing house, founded in the first half of the 19th century by Edward Chapman and William Hall. Upon Hall's death in 1847, Chapman's cousin Frederic Chapman became partner in the company, of which he became sole manager upon the retirement of .BRIDGLAND, D.R. & P. HARDING. 1989. Investigations at GaddesdenRow Brickpit, Hertfordshire, Quaternary Newsletter 59: 2-4.CAMPBELL, J.B., & R.N.L. HUBBARD. 1978. Biological investigationof the Rackley Site, in Sampson (ed.): 47-60.CAMPBELL, J.B., & C.G. SAMPSON. 1978. The Cottages Site, inSampson (ed.): 61-83.CATT, J.A. 1978. Sediments from the Rackley Site, in Sampson (ed.):39-46.CATT, J.A. & R.E. HAGAN. 1978. Geological background, in Sampson(ed.): 17-28.CATT, J.A., R.N.L. HUBBARD & C.G. SAMPSON. 1978. Summary andconclusions, in, in Sampson (ed.): 139-50.CONWAY, B.W., J. MCNABB & N.M. ASHTON. 1996. Summary, in B.W.Conway et al. (ed) Excavations at Barn field Pit, Swanscombe 1968-72:237-40. London: British Museum Press.COX, A. 1979. Survey of Bedfordshire brickmaking: a history andgazetteer gazetteer(găz'ĭtēr`), dictionary or encyclopedia listing alphabetically the names of places, political divisions, and physical features of the earth and giving some information about each. , Bedford: Bedfordshire County Council.DYER, J. 1959. Middling for Wrecks: extracts from the story ofWorthington and Henrietta Smith, Bedfordshire Archaeologist 2: 1-15.1978. Worthington George Smith, Bedfordshire Historical RecordsSociety Proceedings 57:141-79GAMBLE, C.S. 1986. The Palaeolithic settlement of Europe. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press (known colloquially as CUP) is a publisher given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1534, and one of the two privileged presses (the other being Oxford University Press). .1987. Man the shoveller: alternative models for Middle Pleistocenecolonisation and occupation in northern latitudes, in O. Suffer (ed.),The Pleistocene Old World: regional perspectives: 81-98. New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of (NY):Plenum.1992. Comment on Roebroeks et al., Current Anthropology Current Anthropology, published by the University of Chicago Press and sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, is a peer-reviewed journal founded in 1959 by the anthropologist Sol Tax (1907-1995). 33 (5):569-73.1993. Timewalkers: the prehistory prehistory,period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to of global colonisation. Stroud:Alan Sutton.1995. The earliest occupation of Europe: the environmentalbackground, in Roebroeks & van Kolfschoten (ed.): 279-96.1996. Hominid behaviour in the Middle Pleistocene: an Englishperspective, in C.S. Gamble & A.J. Lawson (ed.), The EnglishPalaeolithic reviewed: 63-71. Salisbury: Trust for Wessex Archaeology Wessex Archaeology is one of the largest private archaeological organisations operating in the United Kingdom, based near Salisbury in WiltshireFounded in 1974 as the Trust for Wessex Archaeology by members of the earlier Wessex Archaeological Committee, it took its present .HARRISON, R.E. 1928. Harrison Ightham. Privately printed.KELLY, R. 1983. Hunter-gatherer mobility strategies, Journal ofAnthropological Research 39: 277-306.LOVEDAY, J. 1962. Plateau deposits of the southern Chiltern Hills,Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 73: 83-102.MANIA, D. 1995. The earliest occupation of Europe: the Elbe-Saaleregion (Germany), in Roebroeks & van Kolfschoten (ed.): 85-102.MCNABB, J. 1992. The Clactonian: British Lower Palaeolithic flinttechnology in biface and non-biface assemblages. Unpublished Ph.Dthesis, University of London For most practical purposes, ranging from admission of students to negotiating funding from the government, the 19 constituent colleges are treated as individual universities. Within the university federation they are known as Recognised Bodies .MULLENDERS, W.W. 1993. New palynological studies at Hoxne, in Singeret al. (ed.): 150-55.ROBERTS. M.B. 1986. Excavations at the Lower Palaeolithic site atAmey's Eartham Pit, Boxgrove West Sussex West Sussex,nonmetropolitan county (1991 pop. 692,800), 768 sq mi (1,990 sq km), S England. A chalk ridge runs from the county's east to west edge. In the south the land flattens into a gentle plain. After early Roman invasions, the Saxons moved across Sussex. : a preliminary report,Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 52: 215-45.1990. Amey's Eartham Pit, Boxgrove. SEQS field excursionguidebook: the Cromer Symposium, Norwich: 62-81.ROE, D.A. 1968a. British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic handaxegroups, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 34: 1-82.1968b. A gazetteer of British Lower and Middle Polaeolithic sites.London: Council for British Archaeology The Council for British Archaeology is a British organisation based in York that promotes archaeology within the United Kingdom. Since 1944 the Council has been involved in publicising and generating public support for British archaeology; formulating and disseminating . Research report 8.ROEBROEKS, W., N.J. CANARD ca��nard?n.1. An unfounded or false, deliberately misleading story.2. a. A short winglike control surface projecting from the fuselage of an aircraft, such as a space shuttle, mounted forward of the main wing and & T. VAN KOLFSCHOTEN. 1992. Denseforests. cold steppes, and the Palaeolithic settlement of northernEurope, Current Anthropology 33 (5): 551-86.ROEBROEKS, W. & T. VAN KOLFSCHOTEN (ed.). 1995. The earliestoccupation of Europe: proceedings of the European Science FoundationWorkshop at Tautavel (France), 1993. Leiden: Institute of Prehistory.Analecta an��a��lects? also an��a��lec��tapl.n.Selections from or parts of a literary work or group of works. Often used as a title.[Greek analekta, selected things, from neuter pl. Praehistorica Leidensia 27.SAMPSON. C.G. (ed.). 1978a. Paleoecology pa��le��o��e��col��o��gyn.The branch of ecology that deals with the interaction between ancient organisms and their environment. and archaeology of anAcheulian site at Caddington, England. Dallas (TX): Southern MethodistUniversity Methodist University [1], known until 2006 as Methodist College, is a private college that is historically related to the North Carolina Annual Conference [2] of the United Methodist Church [3] and is located in Fayetteville, North Carolina. .1978b. Introduction, in Sampson (ed.) 1978a: 3-15.1978c. Excavation and stratigraphy stratigraphy,branch of geology specifically concerned with the arrangement of layered rocks (see stratification). Stratigraphy is based on the law of superposition, which states that in a normal sequence of rock layers the youngest is on top and the oldest on the of the Rackley Site, in Sampson(ed.) 1978a: 29-38.SINGER, R., B.G. GLADFELTER & J.J. WYMER. 1993. The LowerPaleolithic Noun 1. Lower Paleolithic - the oldest part of the Paleolithic Age with the emergence of the hand ax; ended about 120,000 years agoPalaeolithic, Paleolithic, Paleolithic Age - second part of the Stone Age beginning about 750,00 to 500,000 years BC and lasting site at Hoxne, England. Chicago (IL): Chicago UniversityPress.SMITH. R.A. 1918. On flint implements (Archæol.) tools, etc., employed by men before the use of metals, such as axes, arrows, spears, knives, wedges, etc., which were commonly made of flint, but also of granite, jade, jasper, and other hard stones.See also: Flint from the Palaeolithic floor atWhipsnade, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries Society of Antiquaries can refer to: Society of Antiquaries of London Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 31: 39-50.SMITH, W.G. 1879. On Palaeolithic implements from the valley of theLea, Journal of the Anthropological Institute 8: 275-8.1883. Primeval man in the valley of the Lea, Transactions of theEssex Field Club 3: 102-47.1884. Primeval man in the valley of the Lea, Journal of theAnthropological Institute 13: 36-8, 83-91,125-37.1887. On a Palaeolithic floor at northeast London, Essex Naturalist1: 357-84.1889. Palaeolithic implements from the hills near Dunstable, Nature40: 141.1892. Primitive man: a Palaeolithic floor near Dunstable, NaturalScience 1: 9,664-70.1894. Man the primeval savage: his haunts and relics from thehilltops of Bedfordshire to Blackwall. London: Stanford.1904. Dunstable: its history and surroundings. London: HomelandAssociation1912. Unpublished letter, 8 December, from Worthington Smith toReginald Smith. British Museum archives.1913a. Unpublished letter, 2 January, from Worthington Smith toReginald Smith. British Museum archives.1913b. Unpublished letter, 4 February, from Worthington Smith toReginald Smith. British Museum archives.1916. Notes on the Palaeolithic floor near Caddington, Archaeologia67: 49-74.N.d. List of Palaeolithic implements. Unpublished manuscript held inthe archives of Luton Museum.SPURRELL. F.J.C. 1880a. On the discovery of a place wherePalaeolithic implements were made at Crayford, Quarterly Journal of theGeological Society of London The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth". It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with over 9000 Fellows entitled to the 36: 544-8.1880b. On implements and chips from the floor of a Palaeolithicworkshop, Archaeological Journal: 37: 294-9.STUART, A.J., R.G. WOLFF, A.M. LISTER, R. SINGER & J.M. EGGINTON.1993. Fossil vertebrates, in Singer et al. (ed.): 163-206.SUMMERFIELD, M.A. 1991. Global geomorphology geomorphology,study of the origin and evolution of the earth's landforms, both on the continents and within the ocean basins. It is concerned with the internal geologic processes of the earth's crust, such as tectonic activity and volcanism that constructs new . Harlow: Longman.TURNER, C. & M.P. KERNEY. 1971. A note on the age of theFreshwater Beds of the Clacton Channel, Journal of the GeologicalSociety of London: 127: 87-93.WHITE, H. 1953. An antiquary of note, Bedfordshire Magazine 3: 341-4.WHITE, M.J. 1996. Biface variability and human behaviour: a studyfrom south-eastern England. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, University ofCambridge.WHITE, M.J., S.G. LEWIS & J. MCNABB. Forthcoming. Excavations atthe earlier Palaeolithic site at Whipshade, Hertfordshire, 1992-4.WYMER, J.J. 1980. The excavation of the Acheulean site at GaddesdenRow, Bedfordshire Archaeological Journal 14: 2-4.1985. Palaeolithic sites of East Anglia. Norwich: Geobooks.