Scales of analysis : evidence of fish and fish processing at Star Carr

This contribution directly relates to the paper published by Wheeler in 1978 entitled ‘Why were there no fish re- mains at Star Carr?’. Star Carr is arguably the richest, most studied and re-interpreted Mesolithic site in Europe but the lack of fish remains has continued to vex scholars. Judging from other materials, the preservation conditions at the site in the late 1940s/early 1950s should have been good enough to permit the survival of fish remains, and particularly dentaries of the northern pike (Esox lucius L., 1758) as found on other European sites of this age. The lack of evidence has therefore been attributed to a paucity of fish in the lake. However, new research has provided multiple lines of evidence, which not only demonstrate the presence of fish, but also provide evidence for the species present, data on how and where fish were being processed on site, and interpretations for the fishing methods that might have been used. This study demonstrates that an integrated approach using a range of methods at landscape, site and microscopic scales of analysis can elucidate such questions. In addition, it demonstrates that in future studies, even in cases where physical remains are lacking, forensic techniques hold significant potential

Middle and Late Pleistocene environmental history of the Marsworth area, south-central England

To elucidate the Middle and Late Pleistocene environmental history of south-central England, we report the stratigraphy, sedimentology, palaeoecology and geochronology of some deposits near the foot of the Chiltern Hills scarp at Marsworth, Buckinghamshire. The Marsworth site is important because its sedimentary sequences contain a rich record of warm stages and cold stages, and it lies close to the Anglian glacial limit. Critical to its history are the origin and age of a brown pebbly silty clay (diamicton) previously interpreted as weathered till. The deposits described infill a river channel incised into chalk bedrock. They comprise clayey, silty and gravelly sediments, many containing locally derived chalk and some with molluscan, ostracod and vertebrate remains. Most of the deposits are readily attributed to periglacial and fluvial processes, and some are dated by optically stimulated luminescence to Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6. Although our sedimentological data do not discriminate between a glacial or periglacial interpretation of the diamicton, amino-acid dating of three molluscan taxa from beneath it indicates that it is younger than MIS 9 and older than MIS 5e. This makes a glacial interpretation unlikely, and we interpret the diamicton as a periglacial slope deposit. The Pleistocene history reconstructed for Marsworth identifies four key elements: (1) Anglian glaciation during MIS 12 closely approached Marsworth, introducing far-travelled pebbles such as Rhaxella chert and possibly some fine sand minerals into the area. (2) Interglacial environments inferred from fluvial sediments during MIS 7 varied from fully interglacial conditions during sub-stages 7e and 7c, cool temperate conditions during sub-stage 7b or 7a, temperate conditions similar to those today in central England towards the end of the interglacial, and cool temperate conditions during sub-stage 7a. (3) Periglacial activity during MIS 6 involved thermal contraction cracking, permafrost development, fracturing of chalk bedrock, fluvial activity, slopewash, mass movement and deposition of loess and coversand. (4) Fully interglacial conditions during sub-stage 5e led to renewed fluvial activity, soil formation and acidic weathering

Mid-late quaternary fluvial archives near the margin of the MIS 12 glaciation in Southern East Anglia, UK: amalgamation of multi-disciplinary and citizen-science data sources

This paper presents an updated geological reconstruction of the Quaternary evolution of the River Thames at its downstream extremities, close to the North Sea coast, based on new data from multi-disciplinary and citizen-science sources. In this area, the interaction of the Thames with the MIS 12 (Anglian) glaciation is an important part of the Quaternary archive. The Anglian ice sheet, which reached parts of north and east London, was responsible for diverting the Thames southwards into its present course, although the footprint of the maximum ice sheet(s) does not reach the North Sea coast south of Hollesley, Suffolk. Further south, the coastal zone hosts pre-Anglian and early Anglian river-terrace deposits of the pre-diversion Thames system, superimposed upon which are products of later post-Anglian rivers, of both Middle and Late Pleistocene age. On the peninsula between the Stour and Blackwater–Colne estuaries, the lowest and most recent terrace of the pre-diversion Thames includes evidence directly pertaining to the glacial disruption event, for which geochronological data are reported here for the first time. The first post-diversion terrace of the Thames also reaches this peninsula, the river having essentially re-joined its original valley before crossing the alignment of the modern coastline. This terrace passes beneath Clacton-on-Sea, where it includes the type locality of the Clactonian Palaeolithic Industry. The area of interest to this paper, in NE Essex and southern Suffolk, includes a number of interglacial and Palaeolithic sites, the data from which assist in constraining the chronostratigraphy of the sequence. In some cases, there has been uncertainty as to whether these sites represent pre-Anglian environments and hominin occupations, part of the palaeo-Thames sequence, or whether they are the product of later post-Anglian streams, formed after the Thames had migrated southwards. This paper compiles evidence from a wide range of recent sources, including developer-funded archaeological appraisal and citizen-science activities, to explore and update the evidence from sites at Ipswich, Upper Dovercourt and Thorpe-le-Soken, as well as a number of localities associated with the Clacton Channel Deposits (host to the type-Clactonian), amongst others. The resulting new data are placed within the wider context of the Quaternary fluvial archives in southern Britain, with a discussion of how disparate sources of information, including the work of citizen scientists, have contributed

Nature of the beast? Complex drivers of prey choice, competition and resilience in Pleistocene wolves (Canis lupus L., 1754)

The wolf (Canis lupus L., 1754) has been a major keystone predator in the Palaearctic since the late Middle Pleistocene. Today, wolves display considerable dietary plasticity over their range, characterised by their preferential consumption of large and medium-sized wild ungulates, supplemented by smaller prey, including small mammals, fish and plant foods. However, the origins of this dietary flexibility (arguably the key to the wolf's long persistence) are poorly understood in terms of responses to different drivers over the course of the Pleistocene, including changing climate, environment and competition from other large carnivores. Here, in the first study using direct palaeodietary measurements on British fossil wolves, carnivore competitors and potential prey species, we compare stable isotope (δ13C and δ15N) evidence from three sites representing a late Middle Pleistocene interglacial (Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage [MIS] 7c-a, c.220-190ka BP), the early Devensian (last cold stage, MIS 5a, c.90-80ka BP) and the middle Devensian (MIS 3, c. 60-25ka BP). The results reveal clear patterns of changing wolf prey choice through time. Notwithstanding issues of collagen preservation obscuring some dietary choices in the oldest samples, both small and large prey (hare, horse) were taken by wolves in the MIS 7c-a interglacial, large prey only (reindeer, bison) during MIS 5a and a broader range of large prey items (horse, woolly rhinoceros, bison) during MIS 3. The results also reveal two further important aspects: (1) that where wolves and spotted hyaenas co-existed, they occupied the same dietary niche and the former was not outcompeted by the latter, and (2) that the stable isotope evidence indicates prey choices during MIS 7c-a and MIS 3 that are not in synchrony with palaeodietary reconstructions from previous studies based on wolf cranio-dental morphology. This establishes for the first time a likely lag between changing predatory behaviour and morphological response but is interestingly not seen in the wolves from MIS 5a, where the prey choices are echoed by the cranio-dental morphology