Abstract
Lea vally Mesoliths. A mesolithic site at Brox-bourne has been described by Messrs. Hazzledine Warren, J. G. D. Clarke, W. A. MacFadyen and H. and M. E. Godwin (J. Boy. Anthrop. Inst., 64, pt. 1). The industry lies above the deposits of the Tundra stage, which is to be correlated with the Magdalenian, and below the peat of the Boreal Forest epoch. The site is situated in Rikof's Pit in the Lea marches, east of Broxbourne railway station. The flints described come from one only of a number of sites identified. This site was small, not exceeding 15 ft. in diameter, and could have been occupied by few people only. The surface below the peat was sand. Owing to the conditions of examination, the flints may be regarded as a completely representative series, with the debris of manufacture, sealed by a peat deposit soon after manufacture. A number are calcined by fire. Five types of point, including micro-burins, are identified. There are also cores, burins, scrapers, axes and hammerstones. As regard its cultural affinities, Broxbourne belongs to the Forest Culture A, which correlates with the Boreal climatic period. Typologically, Broxbourne falls into the group of axe, burin and non-geometric microlith industries of south-east England, which represents an extension of the mesolithic forest cultures of Baltic lands; while by the pollen analysis, here described, it can be dated independently of typological considerations as belonging to Boreal times. Owing to the fortunate circumstances of its discovery and examination, and the incomplete character of the evidence from other similar sites in Britain, Broxbourne must be considered the type site of Forest Culture A in Britain. The Continental sites with which it may be compared are Svaerdborg, Mullerup, and Holmgaard in Sjaelland and Duvensee near Lubeck, all dated on botanical evidence to the Boreal period.
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Research Items. Nature 134, 423–425 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134423a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134423a0