Earliest north Europeans called British coast home
Ancient humans were living in northern Europe 780,000 years ago, far earlier than was previously thought, according to new research published in the journal Nature. Evidence of the ancient humans comes in the form of over 70 flint tools and flakes uncovered at Happisburgh, a small village on the north-eastern coast of Norfolk in the UK. As well as pushing back the date of the earliest known occupation of the UK, the new findings represent the first evidence of ancient humans surviving in a relatively harsh climate. The research may therefore trigger a re-evaluation of the history of the colonisation of Europe and the ability of early humans to adapt to harsh environments. Humans started to leave their ancestral African home around 1.8 million years ago, spreading out around the world to Indonesia in the east and the Iberian peninsula in the west. However, until now, it seemed that these early humans clung to warmer climes, rarely straying further north than the Alps. On the odd occasions when they did move further north, the climate was much warmer than it is today. For example, there is evidence that people came to the UK some 700,000 years ago, when the region basked in a Mediterranean-like climate. In contrast, the climate in Happisburgh 780,000 years ago was similar to that found in southern Scandinavia today. These ancient Britons would have faced average winter temperatures as low as -3°C, while short daylight hours in the winter would have limited the amount of time they could have spent foraging or hunting. At that time, much of northern Europe was covered in coniferous forests, which offered little in the way of food. However, the landscape around Happisburgh offered these early north Europeans some advantages. Back then, the UK was linked to Europe by a vast land bridge, and the River Thames flowed into the North Sea at Happisburgh. This created a mix of habitats including freshwater pools, marshes, coastline and grasslands. These would have supplied ancient humans with essential foods in winter, such as roots and tubers, shellfish, seaweed and large grazing animals. Simon Parfitt of University College London in the UK paints a colourful picture of the area. 'The flood plain would have been dominated by grass, supporting a diverse range of herbivores, such as mammoth, rhino and horse,' he explains. 'Predators would have included hyenas, sabre-toothed cats and of course humans.' This research raises the question of the identity of these north Europeans. So far, no fossilised human remains have been found at the site. 'The humans who made the Happisburgh tools may well have been related to the people of similar antiquity from Atapuerca in Spain, assigned to the species Homo antecessor ('Pioneer Man'),' speculates Chris Stringer of the UK's Natural History Museum. There are also questions over how these ancient humans coped with the cold environment of the period. 'It remains unclear whether expansion into northern latitudes with lower winter temperatures required human physical adaptation, seasonal migration or developments in technology such as hunting, clothing, the use of shelters or control of fire,' the team writes. Looking to the future, the researchers wonder whether the beach at Happisburgh harbours more secrets. The Norfolk coastline is extremely prone to erosion, so ancient sites are continually being uncovered by the sea. 'The sediments are a largely unexplored archaeological resource, spanning over 80 km of coastline and encompassing a critical period for early human prehistory,' the scientists point out. 'Further investigations in this region will focus on these sediments with the possibility of discovering evidence of even earlier human presence in northern Europe.'
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