The tempo of cultural change in the Kostenki Upper Paleolithic : further insights

open access via Cambridge University Press agreement This work was funded by the Leverhulme Trust (AHOB3 and RPG-2012-800). We thank the staff of the ORAU past and present for their careful laboratory work. We also thank the reviewers and Editor-in-Chief for their comments. AB and AS acknowledge Russian Science Foundation grant numbers 20-78-10151 and 18-78-00136, and Russian Foundation of Basic Research grant numbers 18-39-20009, 18-00-00837 and 20-09-00233. We also acknowledge the participation of IHMC RAS (state assignment 0184-2019-0001) and ZIN RAS (state assignment АААА-А19-119032590102-7). We thank the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) for supporting the Oxford node of the National Environmental Isotope Facility (NEIF).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A Middle Palaeolithic to Early Upper Palaeolithic succession from an open air site at Beedings, West Sussex

The collection of flintwork from the site of Beedings, West Sussex (England) contains by far the largest number of stone tools from the earliest Upper Palaeolithic of Britain, and is one of the two largest assemblages of its type in Europe. Despite its obvious importance, its analysis has been hindered by several factors resulting from its early excavation. Chief amongst these is the almost total lack of stratigraphic or contextual information: its Early Upper Palaeolithic attribution has hitherto been made largely on its typological and technological similarity to stratified archaeology elsewhere.\ud \ud New fieldwork in 2007 and 2008 in an area directly adjacent to the original site located further Upper Palaeolithic material, in addition to Middle Palaeolithic and Mesolithic material, situated within a series of fissures. Here we provide an overview of the excavation and details of the archaeological context within which further flint artefacts were found. By extension this work provides the first contextual information for the old, larger collection.\ud \ud The results of OSL analysis accord with an Early Upper Palaeolithic age for the majority of the old lithic collection from the site. Stratigraphic data support this Early Upper Palaeolithic age, and also help to validate the separation of material within the old collection into Middle Palaeolithic, Early Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic. These stratigraphic data also suggest that Beedings is the only stratified Middle–Upper Palaeolithic open-air site in Britain. Taphonomic analysis indicates a mechanism for site formation, and accounts for the exceptional preservation of this Palaeolithic archaeology. In the light of this taphonomic analysis the “Sackung” hypothesis of site capture proposed previously for Beedings is upheld and further discussed. Wider implications for the preservation of open-air Palaeolithic sites in the region are also considered

Report on the 2022 excavations at Wogan Cavern (Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, UK)

In a previous article in this journal (Dinnis et al., 2022), we described the first season of archaeological excavations at Wogan Cavern (Pembroke, southwest Wales). Although based on excavation of a very small volume of deposits, we suggested that the sediments in Wogan Cavern may have very good potential for preserving archaeological remains. Specifically, an intact early Holocene archaeological layer and underlying, bone-bearing Pleistocene deposits encouraged us to believe that the cave might be an important early prehistoric site. Here, we provide an update on our previous work, detailing the findings of the 2022 excavation season. The 2022 work identified several phases of historic and prehistoric activity. The early Holocene archaeological layer containing diagnostic Mesolithic artefacts, found previously in the eastern part of the cave, was shown to extend towards the centre of the cave. Stratigraphically lower deposits dating to the Pleistocene, previously demonstrated close to the cave's eastern wall, were also shown to extend towards the cave's centre. Excavation of the Pleistocene deposits close to the cave's eastern wall revealed evidence for human occupation, with one and possibly two Upper Palaeolithic layers present. The archaeological assemblage(s) from these lower deposits bear similarities to the Palaeolithic stone tool assemblage from the famous Paviland Cave, located c.30 miles (c.50km) to the east. Overall, our 2022 work confirms that Wogan Cavern is an early prehistoric site of national, and potentially international, significance

The archaeological potential of Wogan Cavern (Pembroke, UK):Results of the first fieldwork season

Funding Information: Acknowledgements Many thanks are due to numerous people for their help with our work on Wogan Cavern, including (but not limited to) Jon Williams and the staff at Pembroke Castle, Sian Williams, several colleagues at Dyfed Archaeological Trust, Mark Lewis and Eloise Chapman at Tenby Museum, and Louise Mees at Cadw. We are also grateful to the reviewers for a careful reading of this article and for providing some insightful comments, and to David Lowe, whose comments and advice benefitted the final version of the Paper. The work described here and that planned for the future is funded by the Natural History Museum’s Human Origins Research Fund, the BCRA’s CSTRF scheme, and the Prehistoric Society. ELJ acknowledges the Belspo-ICHIE project for funding her contribution to this research.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Report on the 2022 excavations at Wogan Cavern (Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, UK)

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Trou du Renard and the Belgian Aurignacian

International audienc