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The Palaeolithic (600,000 to 10,000 BC)

The earliest period of human activity in Britain is known as the Palaeolithic or the Old Stone Age.

There were many Ice Ages, during this period. The climate varied widely from very cold to considerably warmer than it is now. At one stage (c 450,000 years ago), thick ice would have covered Worcestershire. However, 125,000 years ago hippos, lions and elephants would have been a common sight in the county.

During some (though curiously not all) of the warmer spells, early humans were present in Britain. Since at these times the English Channel and much of the North Sea did not exist, they probably travelled here from Europe, following former river valleys such as the Bytham and the Mathon, in search of food.

Early settlers used tools made of flint and other stone. Most of the Palaeolithic tools from Worcestershire have been found in quarries along the terraces of the River Avon and the Carrant Brook. These include handaxes and other tools made from flint and stone. The remains of animals and plants from this time have also been found.

To find out much more about this period of our past visit the Ice Age Network website www.iceage.org.uk

This scene is based around finds recovered from quarries along the Carrant Valley in south Worcestershire

It reconstructs a moment about 35-40,000 years ago in the lives of one type of early human, the Neanderthals. A group drives hungry hyenas away from a dead reindeer. The animal will provide the families with food for several days and its hide will provide clothing to protect against the cold living conditions.

It would have been considerably colder than it is now and every spring meltwater streams flowed across the cool dry grasslands of the open tundra. The spring vegetation provided large and small animals like mammoths and rhinoceros, reindeer, wolverine and horses with their diet – and they in turn provided food for hunters and scavengers such as hyenas and the humans who followed the herds across this open landscape.

>> Go to the Mesolithic (10,000 to 4000 BC) period

Story time periods:
Please select: time period... >> Palaeolithic (600,000 to 10,000 BC) >> Mesolithic (10,000 to 4000 BC) >> Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (4000 to 1500 BC) >> Bronze Age settlement >> Iron Age and Roman farmsteads (500 BC to 400 AD) >> The archaeology of Bredon Hill and the Carrant Valley >> Early Medieval Cemeteries and Settlements