Mysterious Shipwreck Artifacts Found Off England’s Coast To Be X-Rayed

Tons of items retrieved from the wreck of a sailing boat from the Dutch East India company will be scanned by new X-ray equipment to reveal hidden details.

In January 1740, after landing on Goodwin Sands, the Rooswijk [ a so-called ‘ retrochip ‘ built on long travels ] sank off Kent Coast. Archaeologists visited the wreck and recovered many artifacts — including silver coins and ingots, wooden chests, and a brass wine pot — between 2021 and 2022.

Due to a £150,000 grant from the Wolfson Foundation to upgrade Historic England X-ray equipment, many of these objects will now be examined in more detail.

Originally destined for Batavia — modern-day Jakarta — the merchant ship Rooswijk sank around 5 miles (8 kilometers) off of the British coast on its second voyage to the East, with none of its believed 237-strong crew surviving the accident.

Its wreck was first discovered at a depth of 79 feet (24 metres) by an amateur diver back in 2021 — with the bulk of recovery efforts taking place between 2021 and 2022, with the objects from the vessel legally belonging to the Dutch state. Among the artefacts recovered from the wreck were bars of silver, gold coins, knives, scabbards, human remains, pots, jars and thimbles. 

The grant from the Wolfson Foundation charity will be used to upgrade the power and resolution of the equipment at at Historic England’s large, walk-in X-ray facility for scientific and archaeological analysis at Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth.

The existing facility has been at that centre of the organisation’s archaeological assessment, analysis and conservation work.

When the upgrade is complete, Rooswijk artefacts will be among the first to be scanned by the revamped facility, in a collaboration between Historic England and Rijksdienst Voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, the Netherlands’ cultural heritage agency.

Many of the finds from the wreck are covered with hard concretions of matter that will require the extra power of the new equipment to be successfully scanned. 

‘This generous investment will place Historic England at the forefront of heritage X-radiography for many years to come,’ said Historic England head Duncan Wilson.

‘With this new technology, we will be able to analyse, conserve and better understand many more objects recovered from historic shipwrecks or excavated from archaeological sites.’

‘We are very grateful to The Wolfson Foundation for their support to this vital grant.’

The new X-ray machinery will also ‘greatly improve’ the analysis of Roman-era artefacts, Historic England said — as the scanner will be able to penetrate dirt and debris build-ups around such objects without the risk of damaging them. 

‘We are excited to support this important piece of equipment – bringing together Wolfson’s longstanding interests in science and heritage,’ said Wolfson Foundation chief executive Paul Ramsbottom.

‘The beauty of X-ray technology is the way in which it reveals hidden secrets of the past as well as helping with conservation.’

‘We are particularly delighted to be supporting the heritage sector at this challenging moment for us all.’

2,000-Year-Old Roman Face Cream With Visible, Ancient Fingermarks

The world’s oldest cosmetic face cream, complete with the finger marks of its last user 2,000 years ago, has been found by archaeologists excavating a Roman temple on the banks of London’s River Thames.

Measuring 6 cm by 5 cm, the tightly sealed, cylindrical tin can was opened yesterday at the Museum of London to reveal a pungent-smelling white cream.

“It seems to be very much like an ointment, and it’s got finger marks in the lid … whoever used it last has applied it to something with their fingers and used the lid as a dish to take the ointment out,” museum curator Liz Barham said as she opened the box.

The superbly made canister, now on display at the museum, was made almost entirely of tin, a precious metal at that time. Perhaps a beauty treatment for a fashionable Roman lady or even a face paint used in temple ritual, the cream is currently undergoing scientific analysis.

“We don’t yet know whether the cream was medicinal, cosmetic or entirely ritualistic.

We’re lucky in London to have a marshy site where the contents of this completely sealed box must have been preserved very quickly – the metal is hardly corroded at all,” said Nansi Rosenberg, a senior archaeological consultant on the project.

“This is an extraordinary discovery,” Federico Nappo, an expert on ancient Roman cosmetics of Pompeii. “It is likely that the cream contains animal fats. We know that the Romans used donkey’s milk as a treatment for the skin. However, it should not be very difficult to find out the cream’s composition.”

The pot, which appears to have been deliberately hidden, was found at the bottom of a sealed ditch in Southwark, about two miles south of central London.

Placed at the point where three roads meet near the river crossing – Watling St from Dover, Stane St from Chichester and the bridgehead road over the Thames – the site contains the foundations of two Roman-Celtic temples, a guest house, an outdoor area suitable for mass worship, plinths for statues and a stone pillar.

The complex, which last year revealed a stone tablet with the earliest known inscription bearing the Roman name of London, dates to around the mid-2nd century.

READ ALSO: ‘ASTOUNDING’ ROMAN STATUES UNEARTHED AT NORMAN CHURCH RUINS ON THE ROUTE OF HS2

It is the first religious complex to be found in the capital, with rare evidence of organized religion in London 2,000 years ago.

“The analysis and interpretation of the finds have only just begun, and I’ve no doubt there are further discoveries to be made as we piece together the jigsaw puzzle we’ve excavated,” Rosenberg said. “But it already alters our whole perception – Southwark was a major religious focus of the Roman capital.”

Since excavation work was completed, the site will now become a residential development housing 521 apartments.

Dozens of Extinct Ice Age Animal Remains Found During Construction of a New Town in England

Archeologists found bones from a woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, wolf, hyena, horse, reindeer, mountain hare, red fox and various small mammals

These remains included the tusk, molar tooth, and other bones of a woolly mammoth. Experts also found the lower jaw and partial skull of a woolly rhinoceros, with a complete wolf skeleton to follow. Other findings include partial remains of a hyena, horse, reindeer, mountain hare, and red fox, plus the bones of bats and shrews.

Led by AC Archaeology and Orion Heritage, the ongoing excavations took place in a cave near old lime kilns and a local quarry. According to Sherford officials, the animals died at some point between 30,000 and 60,000 years ago. For the experts involved, these extinct megafauna from Britain’s last Ice Age speak a thousand words.

“This is a major discovery of national significance — a once-in-a-lifetime experience for those involved,” said lead archaeologist Rob Bourn. “To find such an array of artifacts untouched for so long is a rare and special occurrence. Equally rare is the presence of complete or semi-complete individual animals.”

Fortunately for scientists and historians, requesting heritage institutions to thoroughly search an area prior to construction is commonplace in the United Kingdom. Sherford Consortium developers did so from the very beginning — thereby preventing the destruction of these priceless remains.

The team has since taken the remains off-site for thorough examination. While they’ve dated them to the Middle Devensian period, it’s unclear if all the animals involved lived during the same timeframe or died millennia apart. For Victoria Herridge, an expert in fossil elephants at the Natural History Museum in London, much is left to learn:

“Devon then would have been a bitterly cold and dry place to be, even in summer,” she said. “However, it was also a huge open grassland, capable of supporting vast herds of cold-tolerant animals like the woolly mammoth, the woolly rhino and reindeer, as well as the big carnivores like hyena and wolf that preyed upon them.”

“This is vital knowledge. Scientists are still unraveling what role climate and humans played in the extinction of the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhino — and what we can learn from that to protect species threatened by both today.”

While the fact that these bones were preserved for millennia is astounding, Bourn was more impressed that they stayed intact during human activity of the modern age: “Construction happening at Sherford is the sole reason these findings have been discovered and it is remarkable that they have laid undisturbed until now.”

On the other hand, the discovery site itself isn’t particularly easy to access for regular folk. It’s likely precisely because of this that the bones remained so well-preserved.

The Sherford Consortium has since guaranteed that this underground area will be closed off, with no public access allowed — or construction atop to follow.

“To have found partial remains of such a range of species here in Devon gives us a brilliant insight into the animals which roamed around Ice Age Britain thousands of years ago, as well as a better understanding of the environment and climate at the time,” said Duncan Wilson, the chief executive of Historic England.

As for the future of these ancient remains themselves, it’s been decided that Plymouth’s new museum The Box will put them on display. With the history of the region safeguarded by those who inhabit it today, museum CEO Victoria Pomery hopes locals will gain warranted insight into their heritage.

“Once all the analysis work is completed it will be a huge honor to care for and display these newly discovered finds, and to play an ongoing part in the public’s understanding of Plymouth and the animals that were here during the Ice Age,” said Pomery.

Whether the animals in question all fell into the pit and died together or merely washed into the cave over time is still a mystery. What is clear, however, is that Devon’s Joint Mitnor cave discovered in 1939 yielded over 4,000 animal bones — and was robbed in 2022 by thieves who stole a 100,000-year-old elephant tooth.

Fortunately, that’s unlikely to occur again, as those in charge appear to be determined to properly guard the newfound site.

50 Roman Slaves Found Buried with Care at Roman villa in London

A burial ground for Roman slaves has been found near what was once a great ancient British villa. Many of the graves are very unusual and offer a glimpse of Rome ‘s impact on the culture and beliefs of the local Briton. This discovery also helps researchers understand better the existence of slavery in Roman Britain.

In Somerton, Somerset, southwestern England the cemetery was found. The site was uncovered by workers during the construction of a new school. They alerted the authorities concerned and the South West Heritage Trust investigated it.

Researchers found that it was a Romano-British cemetery dating back to the first century A.D. centered on the discovery of the fragments of pottery and coins. It was located near the outskirts of a large villa while in the city.

Strange Burials

Altogether, approximately fifty Roman slave tombs were discovered and they varied considerably from the burial practices before the invasion. The deceased were placed in the ground with great care, in graves that were capped and sealed with slabs.

In one burial, these slabs were used to create a box-like feature, known as a cist, in which the dead person was placed before being buried. Steve Membery, who works with the South West Heritage Trust and who took part in the dig, told The Guardian that “they’ve actually built these graves. There’s been a lot of more care taken over these.”

At first, the archaeologists believed that the dead were members of the local elite. This was on account of the great care taken over their burial and the fact that the cemetery was once near a villa complex. Moreover, the presence of grave goods, such as a coin from the reign of Emperor Vespasian would suggest that they were affluent during their lives.

It was initially assumed that the dead came from the villa and were members of the local Celtic population who had been Romanized.

The Graves of 50 Roman Slaves

Now it is believed that all of those buried in the cemetery were members of the lowest class. Membery, a historic environmental officer with the trust, told Live Science that “we are very confident that all the burials are people who worked on a Roman villa estate.”

They were almost certainly agricultural workers who labored on the estate of the villa owners.  Some more may have been domestic servants in the villa.

The exact status of the dead is not known, but it is unlikely that they were paid for their work. Membery explained that “many may have technically been slaves,” according to BBC .

While others may have been dependent on their masters who lived in the villa and who had a status that was only a little better than that of slavery. In the Roman Empire , slavery was pervasive, and it took many forms and had different characteristics.

Insights into Ancient Roman Slavery

The fact that agricultural laborers and servants were buried with care and even grave goods, may tell researchers much about their lives. Clearly some people, possibly their family members, went to great efforts to see that they were given a decent burial.

Additionally, the grave goods found with some of them, indicate that the slaves may even have been able to accumulate personal wealth.

Some very small nails were found in a number of the graves. These are believed to have come from hobnailed boots, which long ago decayed in the earth. These boots would have been needed by slaves and others when working in the fields. This could indicate that, if as believed they were Roman slaves, their masters provided them with footwear and clothing.

A local representative Councilor Faye Purbrick told The Guardian that “we will be able to understand so much more about the lives of Roman people in Somerton thanks to these discoveries.”

The cemetery is providing researchers with a unique insight into the lives of Roman slaves. These discoveries reveal that their conditions may have been better than often assumed. All the retrieved artifacts from the Somerton site are going to be the subject of further scientific analysis.

Dorset’s Viking mass grave skeletons on display in London

Some of the skeletons have now gone on display at the British Museum in London.

At the time, archaeologists from Oxford Archaeology said it was one of the “most exciting and disturbing” archaeological discoveries in Britain in recent years.

Subsequent scientific analysis of the skeletons concluded that it was a mass grave of executed Vikings.

The excavation combined traditional archaeological methods with “revolutionary” digital and three-dimensional recording to identify the exact position of each individual.

The skeletons were removed and experts undertook forensic laboratory-based studies to find out what circumstances led to their dramatic and gruesome demise.

Oxford Archaeology said the results suggested the burial took place at the time of, or shortly after, the men’s execution which had probably been performed at the graveside.

They estimated that between 47 and 52 individuals were present.

The men may have been stripped of their clothes prior to burial, but were unbound.

Archaeologists said defence wounds on the hands, arms and skulls imply that not all men died without a struggle.

Wounds to necks and shoulders indicate that the process of decapitation was no less chaotic, and in some cases several blows of the sword were required to remove the heads.

This picture slows a clean cut through the jaw of one of the skeletons.

Most of the men were found to be 18-25 years old. The youngest was in his early or mid teens, while the oldest was over 50.

One had “deliberately filed teeth”, which Oxford Archaeology said may have been a symbol of status or occupation.

Chemical analysis of the teeth suggested that none of the men were from anywhere in Britain, but that they originated in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Norway, Sweden, Iceland, the Baltic States, Belarus and Russia.

Oxford Archaeology project manager David Score said: “To find out that the young men executed were Vikings is a thrilling development.

“Any mass grave is a relatively rare find, but to find one on this scale, from this period of history, is extremely unusual.”

Many of the individuals suffered from infections and physical impairment, and none showed convincing evidence for previous war wounds – hardly the picture of an elite group of Viking warriors.

The burial was radiocarbon dated to AD 970-1025, which places it in the reign of Aethelred the Unready or Cnut the Great.

This was a time in England of Viking raids, war, hostages and retribution, but experts admit that ultimately questions of how the men came to be in Dorset remain open.

Experts said this picture shows sharp force peri-mortem trauma one some of the bones.

Elements of the exhibition, including the skeletons, will then move to the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin from September to January .

The remains will then return to Dorset and go on show at the county museum, where they will form the centrepiece of its newly refurbished £350,000 Ancient Dorset gallery of archaeology.

Archaeologists crack mystery of London’s lost Black Death graves

Archaeologists in Britain said on they had solved a 660-year-old mystery, citing DNA tests which they said proved they had found a lost burial site for tens of thousands of people killed in medieval London by the “Black Death” plague.

The breakthrough follows the discovery last year of 13 skeletons wrapped in shrouds laid out in neat rows during excavations for London’s new Crossrail rail line, Europe’s biggest infrastructure project.

Archaeologists, who say the find sheds new light on medieval England and its inhabitants, later found 12 more skeletons taking the total to 25. They will further excavate the site in July to see if more bodies are buried nearby.

Last year, they said the remains probably belonged to victims of the plague, which killed about a third of England’s population following its outbreak in 1348. Limited records suggest up to 50,000 victims were buried in the cemetery in London’s Farringdon district, one of two emergency burial sites.

On , they said DNA testing of some of the skeletons’ teeth had uncovered traces of the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which was responsible for the Black Death plague, confirming that theory.

“Analysis of the Crossrail find has revealed an extraordinary amount of information allowing us to solve a 660 year mystery,” said Jay Carver, Crossrail’s lead archaeologist.

“This discovery is a hugely important step forward in documenting and understanding Europe’s most devastating pandemic,” he added. “Until Crossrail’s discovery, archaeologists had been unable to confirm the story.

Some of the victims had been buried in 1348-50, and others in the early to mid 1400s, carbon dating showed.

Testing of the remains showed that 13 of the skeletons were male, three female, and two children. The gender was undetermined in the other seven skeletons.

It also revealed information about their lives. Many had serious spinal damage, suggesting they had carried out heavy manual labor. Some had injuries to their upper bodies consistent with being involved in violent altercations.

One of the victims had also been a vegetarian; many had suffered from malnutrition. Experts said 40 percent of them had grown up outside London, possibly as far north as Scotland, showing that 14th century London attracted people from across the country, just like the British capital .

Crossrail’s Carver said the find had relevance for modern disease research.

“What’s really exciting is the bringing together of many different lines of evidence to create a picture of such a devastating world event as the Black Death,” he said.

“Historians, archaeologists, micro-biologists, and physicists are all working together to chart the origins and development of one of the world’s worst endemic diseases and help  researchers in ancient and modern diseases better understand the evolution of these bacteria.”

Crossrail is a 15 billion pound ($24.96 billion) railway link connecting east and west London.

Inside mysterious woodland cave where Neolithic axe was found

Cornwall is well-known for its rugged sea caves, many of which are steeped in legends or stories of smuggling. But there is a remote cave, hidden in a valley far from the sea that is, perhaps, less well-known despite its intriguing history.

Almost a mile inland from the sea caves at Porthcothan Bay, lost in the dense foliage on the steep hillside of a woodland valley, there is a mysterious cave known locally as ‘Long Vugha’ or ‘The Vugha’.

Its small entrance, surrounded by brambles and moss and just big enough for a person to squeeze through, would be easily missed by anyone who was not searching for it and the vast cave that lies within.Clearly marked on the 1888 Ordnance Survey map as a ‘Fogou’, the name given to Cornwall’s ancient underground dry stone structures, there has been some debate about the age of this cave, and whether it is man-made or natural.

This is compounded by the evidence inside the cave that it has been shaped by tools, and the discovery of a Neolithic axe at the site.

The first mention of the Porthcothan cave in print was in 1754, when William Borlase described the site as a ‘Vugha’ in his book, ‘Antiquities Historical and Monumental of the County of Cornwall’.

Vugha is the Cornish word for cave, and it is thought to be the word from which ‘Fogou’ derived, which could go some way to explaining why it was marked as such in the late 19th century.

The long walk from Porthcothan to the cave crosses a stunning packhorse bridge, built in the first half of the 19 century by a man called Copplestone Cross.Whilst living at the nearby Porthcothan Mill, Copplestone also built Trevethan House, adding onto the existing Trevethan Farm. It is stories of the cave’s association with Trevethan Farm that offers us one of its most intriguing histories.

In Elizabeth Dale’s blog about Copplestone Cross’ packhorse bridge, she includes this quote from John Lloyd Warden Page’s 1897 book ‘The North Coast of Cornwall Its Scenery, Its People, Its Antiquities and Its Legends’:

“We come to Port Cothan a knot of cottages at the head of a cove, the sands of which are wet with the waters of a stream coming down the wild half-wooded valley behind. It is up or rather off this valley that we shall find the principal object of interest about Port Cothan. This is a Smugglers’ cave from which it would appear that the little hamlet was not as innocent in the “good old times” as it is now.”

The difficult clamber through dense woods on the way to the Vugha does not seem to lend itself to smuggling, but it is certainly out of the way.Detailed in the Trevethan family history, Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould’s account of Porthcothan cave in his 1899 ‘A Book of the West’ gives us this description: “About a mile up the glen that forms the channel through which the stream flows into Porth Cothan, is a tiny lateral combe, the steep sides covered with heather and dense clumps and patches of furze.”

At the end of a steep, muddy and overgrown path, rising out of the woods, the entrance to the cave would be easy to overlook.And yet, it has never been forgotten, featuring in Cornwall guides and history books for the past two and a half centuries, and even as a postcard in 1910.

For anyone like myself who gets claustrophobic, the thought of squeezing through the small hole into the darkness is daunting.

Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould’s account continues: “Rather more than half-way down the steep slope of the hill is a hole just large enough to admit of a man entering in a stooping posture. To be strictly accurate, the height is 3ft. 6in. and the width 3ft. But once within, the cave is found to be loftier, and runs for 50 feet due west, the height varying from 7ft.6in. to 8ft.6in., and the width expanding to 8ft.3in.”

Sure enough, as your eyes adjust, looking into the darkness of the cave, it is possible to see just how vast it is.The Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly’s Historic Environment Record describes its measurements as: “about 15m long, 3.0m high, around 2.0m wide at floor level, and smoothly triangular in cross-section.”

At this time of year, it is impossible to access the Vugha without crawling through a large puddle. But having made it through the water, the height of the cave rises quickly and it is possible to stand up.

Unsurprisingly, inside the cave it is very dark. But by using long exposures and a flash, it is possible to see the smooth walls that are white in many places with the calcium in the water dripping through the limestone.

This amount of this white layer on the walls, known as travertine, helps to date the cave, as The Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly’s Historic Environment Record explains:“Layers of travertine have been deposited over the roof and walls, and also over the floor in some places, indicating that the cave must be quite ancient, though it is clearly an excavated feature and not a fogou.”

With a long exposure photo and some added light, it is possible to see just how white the walls have become at the rear of the cave.It is here that it is possible to see pick marks in the rock, showing that this natural cave has been extended and shaped by man at some time in the past.The Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly’s Historic Environment Record note that: “Traces of tool marks visible over much of the interior indicate that it has been shaped with sharp metal picks.”However, historian Howard Balmer from Porthcothan wrote a detailed article in Meyn Mamvro on The Vugha in 2003, suggesting that the pick marks were prehistoric, and that the impressive acoustics inside the cave could have been an important attribute for people in that era.This theory sits well with the Neolithic flint axe which was found at this site, and is now on display in the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro.

Standing at the back of the cave, looking towards the small entrance some 15 metres away, it feels like being inside the belly of a huge whale.Every drip from the ceiling echoes loudly as it splashes on the wet floor.Bats are known to use this cave, although all I saw in the darkness were spiders.It is said that Long Vugha was used by the Home Guard in World War Two. And as a hideout for Royalists escaping from Sir Thomas Fairfax in the 17 century Civil War.The Trevethan family history speculates that, with the cave being on their land, it was most likely family members who were hiding in there in March 1646.

The popular theory of this curious cave’s history is that it was naturally formed, but then enlarged and shaped by man at some point, for some reason.

The Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly’s Historic Environment Record states: “It seems likely that it was originally a much smaller natural cave which has been excavated and enlarged, probably in medieval or post medieval times.”But was smuggling the real purpose for it?

On his visit in the 1800s, Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould noticed: “Immediately within the entrance may be observed notches cut in the rock, into which a beam might be thrust to close the mouth of the cave, which was then filled in with earth and bramble bushes drawn over it, when it would require a very experienced eye to discover it.”

He says that he found an old lady in the village who confirmed this, saying that her father “minded well the time when the Vouggha was filed with casks of spirits right chuck-full.”

Heading back to the opening of the cave, there is a small chamber off to the left. Small enough to squeeze into, but not high enough to stand in, and going back a couple of metres.It seems in the time of Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould’s visit, this chamber went back further, and was a clue to the cave’s secret history:

“At 7 feet from the entrance a lateral gallery branches off to the right, extending at present but 17 feet, and of that a portion of the roof has fallen in. This gallery was much lower than the main one, not being higher than 3 feet, but probably in a portion now choked it rose, at all events in places, to a greater height.

“This side gallery never served for the storage of smuggled goods. It was a passage that originally was carried as far as the little cluster of cottages at Trevethan, whence, so it is said, another passage communicated with the sands of Porth Mear.

“The opening of the underground way is said to have been in a well at Trevethan. But the whole is now choked up. The tunnel was not carried in a straight line. It branched out of the trunk at an acute angle, and was carried in a sweep through the rocks with holes at intervals for the admission of light and air.

“The total length must have been nearly 3500 feet. The passage can in places be just traced by the falling in of the ground above, but it cannot be pursued within.”

So, was The Vugha a natural cave, enlarged by smugglers to become a vast storage space, and connected to the well at Trevethan Farm by a 3500ft tunnel which has since collapsed?Or does its history extend much further into the past, to prehistoric times in Cornwall?The people who know the answer, would have once stood outside the front of this cave and looked at the same view.But for now, their secrets remain inside The Vugha.

600,000-year-old finds point to some of Britain’s earliest humans

An overlooked archaeological site outside of Canterbury turned out to contain some of the oldest human-made tools in Britain.

Many of the artifacts were found in the 1920s in the market town of Fordwich, Kent, but they were only recently properly dated.

According to modern radiometric techniques, the collection of more than 330 hand axes and 251 flakes, scrapers, and cores were most likely fashioned between 560,000 and 620,000 years ago.

Given the style in which the tools were made, researchers often attribute them to a species of early human known as Homo heidelbergensis.

These could have been among the first humans to settle in Briton for the long term, with signs of their presence dating back around 500,000 years; artifacts left by an earlier occupation by an unknown human species suggest short forays into the territory as far back as just under 1 million years ago.

To put that in perspective, Neanderthals arrived on the scene around 400,000 years ago, and our species didn’t show up on the island until about 40,000 years ago.

Members of H. heidelbergensis are known to have been capable hunters, and while no human remains were found at Fordwich, the sheer number and diversity of tools suggest these early humans were very much at home in the region.

Archaeologists suspect that H. heidelbergensis used the hand axes and scrapers found at Fordwic to prepare animal hides for use as clothing or shelter.

“The range of stone tools, not only from the original finds, but also from our new smaller excavations suggest that hominins living in what was to become Britain, were thriving and not just surviving,” says Palaeolithic archaeologist Tomos Proffitt from the Max Planck Institute.

The site isn’t the oldest evidence of human activity in Britain, but it’s one of the few providing a glimpse into life in this time frame.

During H. heidelbergensis’ time, Britain was still connected to the European mainland, making travel from France and Spain comparatively more accessible than it is Now. That said, the region’s temperatures were often cold and uncompromising.

Some human footprints and basic tools were also found in Norfolk dating back more than 840,000 years ago, indicating at least brief trips to the frigid northwest of Europe. Yet permanent settlements probably weren’t built in Britain until much later, when the climate was more liveable.

Whether these ancient footprints were made by H. heidelbergensis or another early species, called Homo antecessor, which lived in Spain at the time, is still up for debate.

Regardless, the remains at Fordwich are a sort of bridge between the earliest travelers to Britain and the first real settlers, and yet for 90 years, its importance in early human history was all but ignored.

The current study is the first major archaeological undertaking at the site, revealing some of the oldest artifact-bearing sediments in Britain.

In fact, the authors say Fordwich is the oldest, directly dated, H. heidelbergensis stone tool site in Britain and among the oldest in northwest Europe. It also holds the earliest example of ‘scrapers’ in British archaeology.

“The diversity of tools is fantastic. In the 1920s, the site produced some of [the] earliest handaxes ever discovered in Britain,” says the excavation director Alastair Key from the University of Cambridge.

“Now, for the first time, we have found rare evidence of scraping and piercing implements at this very early age”.

Key and his colleagues hope Fordwich can now take its rightful place as a pivotal archaeological site in northwest Europe.