 | |
| Geographical range | Great Britain |
|---|---|
| Period | Upper Paleolithic |
| Dates | between 13,000–11,800 BP[1] |
| Type site | Creswell Crags |
| Major sites | Gough's Cave,Kents Cavern |
TheCreswellian is a BritishUpper Palaeolithicculture named after the type site ofCreswell Crags inDerbyshire byDorothy Garrod in 1926.[3] It is also known as the British LateMagdalenian.[4] According to Andreas Maier: "In current research, the Creswellian andHamburgian are considered to be independent but closely related entities which are rooted in the Magdalenian."[5] The Creswellian is dated between 13,000 and 11,800 BP[1] and was followed by the most recent ice age, theYounger Dryas, when Britain was at times unoccupied by humans.[6]
The term Creswellian appeared for the first time in 1926 inDorothy Garrod'sThe Upper Palaeolithic Age in Britain. This was the first academic publication[7] by Dr Garrod who in 1939 became the first woman ever to be elected as a professor atCambridge.[8] It is also the first monograph about the Upper Paleolithic of Britain at the national level and it remained the only one on the subject for half a century. Garrod suggested that the British variant of theMagdalenian industry is different enough to create a specific name:[7]
"I propose tentatively "Creswellian", since Creswell Crags is the station in which it is found in greatest abundance and variety."
— Dorothy Garrod, The Upper Palaeolithic Age in Britain, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1926, p. 194.
The definition of Creswellian was refined since then and now refers exclusively, in the British context, to the Late Magdalenian-style industry.
Diagnostic tools used to identify the period include trapezoidal backedblades called Cheddar points, variant forms known as Creswell points, and smallerbladelets. Other tool types include endscrapers made from long, straight blades. A special preparation technique was employed to remove blades from acore through striking in a single direction, leaving a distinct 'spur' on the platform. The tools were made using a softhammerstone or an antler hammer.[citation needed]
Other finds include Balticamber, mammoth ivory and animal teeth and bone. These were used to make harpoons, awls, beads and needles. Unusual bevelled ivory rods, known assagaies have been found atGough's Cave inSomerset andKent's Cavern inDevon.
Twenty eight sites producing Cheddar points are known in England and Wales though none have so far been found inScotland orIreland, regions which it is thought were not colonised by humans until later. Most sites are caves but there is increasing evidence for open air activity and that preferred sources of flint were exploited and that tools travelled distances of up to 100 miles from their sources. Some of the flint at Gough's Cave came from theVale of Pewsey[citation needed] inWiltshire whilst non-local seashells and amber from the North Sea coast also indicate a highly mobile population. This matches evidence from the Magdelanian cultures elsewhere in Europe and may suggest that exchange of goods and the sending out of specialised expeditions seeking raw materials may have been practised. Analysis ofdebitage at occupation sites suggests that flint nodules were reduced in size at source and the lighter blades carried by Creswellian groups as 'toolkits' in order to reduce the weight carried.
Comparison of flint from Kent's Cavern and Creswell Crags has led some archaeologists to believe that they were made by the same group.[citation needed]
Food species eaten by Creswellian hunters focused on the wild horse (Equus ferus) or thered deer (Cervus elaphus), probably depending on the season, although theArctic hare,reindeer,mammoth,Saiga antelope, wild cow, brown bear,lynx,Arctic fox and wolf were also exploited.
Highly fragmentary fossil bones were found inGough's Cave at Cheddar. They had marks that suggested actions of skinning, dismembering, defleshing and marrow extraction. The excavations of 1986-1987 noted that human and animal remains were mixed, with no particular distribution or arrangement of the human bones. They also show the signs of the same treatments as the animal bones. These findings were interpreted in the sense of a nutritionalcannibalism. However, slight differences from other sites in skull treatment leave open the possibility of elements of ritual cannibalism.[9]
There are numerous radiocarbon determinations on human remains, butchered animal bones and organic artefacts which date the Creswellian to between 13,000-11.800 BP (Jacobi 2004).
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