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Abstract

Northern Europe experienced cycles of hominin habitation andabsence during the Middle Pleistocene. Fluvial gravel terracesites in the east of Britain and north of France provide amajority of the data contributing to this understanding, mostlythrough the presence or absence of stone-tool artefacts. To date,however, relatively few sites have been radiometrically dated,and many have not been excavated in modern times, leading toan over-reliance on selectively sampled and poorly dated lithicassemblages. This includes Fordwich (Kent, UK), where over330 bifaces were discovered through industrial quarrying in the1920s. Here, we present the first excavation and dating ofartefacts discoveredin situat Fordwich, alongside theirtechnological analysis and relationship to those previouslyrecovered. The site is demonstrated to retain deposits of LowerPalaeolithic artefacts, with 251 flakes, scrapers and coresidentified to date. Infrared-radiofluorescence (IR-RF) dating offeldspar reveals 112 artefacts to have come from levels dating to at least 570 ± 36 to 513 ± 30 thousand years ago (ka) and are most plausibly assigned to an MIS 14deposition, with artefacts produced during MIS 15 (approx. 560–620 ka). Indeed, these IR-RFsamples provide minimum ages for artefacts. Combined with evidence from exposures linked tothe original quarrying activities, a similar MIS 15 age is suggested for the more than 330 handaxeartefacts discovered in the 1920s. The remaining excavated artefacts come from levels dated tobetween 347 ± 22 and 385 ± 21 ka (MIS 10 or 11), with this later age interpreted to reflect post-MIS14 deposition by substrate gullying and solifluction. These data demonstrate Fordwich to be one ofthe earliest Palaeolithic sites in northwestern Europe, and to retain the only large Acheuleanhandaxe assemblage directly dated to pre-MIS 13. Thus, Fordwich is determined to be a crucialpiece of the pre-Anglian Palaeolithic puzzle in northern Europe