An intriguing paper by two archaeologists in the September issue of Antiquity
offers evidence that the colonisation of Britain by modern humans, Homo sapiens
sapiens (ironic and presumptuous title), occurred some 30,000 years ago, and
not as early as 40,000 years, as some researchers have calculated in studies
of northern Europe. It is thought that the earliest known human artefact from
these islands is a spear point discovered in a quarry at Uphill, near Weston-super-Mare,
in 1898, and now in the Bristol city museum. It has now been dated by means
of accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon technique.
The specimen in question is a shaved length of deer bone or antler designated
of the Aurignacian culture. The fragment might have come from a triangular or
lozenge-shaped point, the base being solid and not split. Evidence of longitudinal
scraping with a stone tool is visible, the object being a little longer than
10cm. It is claimed to be the subject of the first direct radiocarbon dating
from an Aurignacian artefact in Britain. With a date of 28,000 to 27,360 years
before present, it seems possible that the spear point was made while Neanderthal
humans still constituted part of the complex population of Britain and northern
Europe.