New evidence for the Clactonian-Acheulean succession during MIS 11 from Devereux's Pit, Suffolk, UK

Fieldwork at the Lower Palaeolithic site at Devereux's Pit, Icklingham, Suffolk, UK, has identified two lithic industries, separated stratigraphically, dated to marine oxygen isotope stage 11 (MIS 11: 424-374 ka). The lower stone tool assemblages consist of core and flake technology with occasional flake tools, succeeded by an assemblage related to the manufacture of handaxes. The assemblages occur within a continuously accumulating fine-grained sequence with no sedimentary evidence to indicate a significant hiatus in human occupation of the site between the two industries. This suggests a rapid changeover from non-handaxe to handaxe technology. Devereux's Pit is the fourth MIS 11 locality in Britain with this archaeological succession, after Barnham East Farm, Swanscombe, and Southfleet Road, Ebbsfleet. It adds to the evidence from across Britain for the Clactonian (core and flake) and Acheulean (handaxes) as successive industries of the Hoxnian Interglacial (MIS 11c). The interpretation of a short time interval between the industries at Devereux's Pit supports the hypothesis that the appearance of handaxes during the Hoxnian represents the spread of Acheulean technology from Europe to Britain, rather than independent development of handaxe manufacture by the existing population. This lends support to a ‘source and sink’ demographic model of Middle Pleistocene Europe and provides further evidence for a mosaic of human groups, each with a distinctive material culture that is contingent on historical and environmental circumstances.