ULAS
University of Leicester Archaeological Services

Glaston Early Upper Palaeolithic Project: The Environment

During the Early Upper Palaeolithic the sea levels were much lower than today because much of the water was contained in the ice sheet to the north. As a result Britain was joined to the continent by a land bridge across the English Channel and southern North Sea, enabling people and animals to travel great distances.

The climate was dry and perhaps a few degrees colder than today, similar to modern conditions on the Siberian Steppes. The landscape was largely treeless, however rich grasslands known as ‘mammoth steppe’ flourished and supported a diverse range of fauna including wild horse, giant elk, bison, woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, reindeer and their predators, lions, bears, wolves, spotted hyena and a small number of hominids.

The prevailing climate at this time was very changeable and had the potential to get warmer or colder over as short a timespan as a decade. The remains from Glaston suggest a link between the hyena and the woolly rhinoceros and a separate association between the humans and the horse. These possible relationships may also suggest different climatic conditions during the two episodes of the sites use; a warm environment during the hyena den phase and a colder one at the time of the human presence.