ULAS
University of Leicester Archaeological Services

Glaston Early Upper Palaeolithic Project: The People

Perhaps the strangest Pleistocene animals to visit Glaston were the humans. Their traces were very slight, comprising a small assemblage of flint tools and knapping debris. However, even this small group of finds can still provide an insight into activities at the site.

The tools included this leaf point, likely to have been used as a spear tip. This is an artefact type found across a wide tract of northern Europe from Poland to Wales. They are thought to date between c 38-28,000 radiocarbon years ago, a time when Europe had two human populations, the indigenous Neanderthal ‘ancients’ and the newly-arrived ‘moderns’, our species Homo sapiens. The manufacturer of leaf points remains unknown although some of our project partners would put money on a Neanderthal association.

The Glaston leaf point is made on a blade of triangular section. It has been carefully retouched (chipped) into a leaf shape with a straight longitudinal profile. The retouching is fairly minimal reflecting the near-ideal shape and straightness of the blade blank. The retouching at the tip appears to accentuate the sharpness and possibly strengthened the impact point. The lateral retouching at the opposite end probably helped to haft the spearhead to its wooden shaft. A likely reconstruction is shown left (© Judith Dobie, English Heritage). The spear tip has been placed at the split end of a wooden shaft and is held in place with resin and tightly wound sinew.The manufacture or repair of another leaf point is evident from a flake with signs of bifacial retouch. The leaf point probably left the site with the prehistoric hunters.

This flint core (right) found adjacent to horse teeth was large enough still to have produced blade blanks. A few large flakes and a blade represent early removals from such a core. Indeed the presence of very similar cortex on many of the pieces suggests that they may have once come from the same flint nodule. There was also a scatter of much smaller flakes, spalls and chips that probably resulted from secondary knapping, that is the final stages of tool production or repairing of a toolkit.

The fresh, unweathered condition of the flints suggests that they were buried rapidly. The small size of the assemblage and its composition implies that the site served as a temporary hunting camp. The site location provided commanding views across the plateau. The image shows flint knapping in the lea of a limestone ‘raft’ © Jane Brayne.

The close spatial positioning of the flint core and the group of horse teeth may suggest that the presence of humans and horses on the site was related. This suggestion was also supported by the condition of other horse bones recovered from the site.

With few exceptions, the horse bones did not appear to have been affected by hyena gnawing, however several long bones had apparently been deliberately smashed to extract the marrow. Characteristic ‘twist fractures’ on the bones could only have been created when the bone was fresh and may be a further indication of an interrelationship between the sites’ humans and horses.

Other possible tools

Two flakes show what appears to be deliberate retouching to produce notched pieces. Such tools may have served as spoke shaves, used to straighten wooden shafts.
The remaining worked flint has no secondary modification. However, it is quite feasible that some of the larger pieces could have been used for cutting materials such as meat, cord, leather. The chips and small flakes testify to flint knapping at the site.