Provider: Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic

TY  - JOUR
JO  - Anthropologie (Brno)
TI  - Beeches Pit: First Views of the Archaeology of a Middle Pleistocene Site in Suffolk, UK, in European Context
AU  - Gowlett JAJ
AU  - Chambers JC
AU  - Hallos J
AU  - Pumphrey TRJ
Y1  - 1998
VL  - 36
IS  - 1-2
PB  - Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic
SN  - 0323-1119
SP  - 91
EP  - 97
KW  - Lower Palaeolithic
KW  - Interglacial
KW  - Acheulian
KW  - Middle Pleistocene
KW  - Europe
N2  - 
N2  - Beeches Pit is an archaeological site of Middle Pleistocene age located about 10 km from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK. From 1992 exploratory excavations were carried out on the north side of a 19th century brickpit. In 1996 a second phase of archaeological work began on a larger scale. The former brickpit preserves a transect of a former channel aligned roughly from E- W. This channel or creek was initiated in fluvioglacial conditions and silted up during an ensuing interglacial. The two principal archaeological localities, separated by about 20 metres, are on the north flank of the channel, and are incorporated in tufaceous sediments or in clays overlying these. The flints include a number of burnt specimens. In 1996 localised baked sediment was also discovered, which was raised as a block in 1997 for further study. Faunal remains include microfauna and elements of a large deer, Beeches Pit is a rare British site where occupation can be attributed directly to an interglacial period. This follows the Anglian glaciation, and is likely to be isotope stage 11. The archaeological occurrences probably represent repeated sporadic hominid visits to a south-facing channel bank, where springs may have served as a focus for various activities.
ER  -