http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100707/full/news.2010.338.htmlArchaeological findings from the east coast of the United Kingdom reveal that early humans were living in northern Europe at least 80,000 years earlier than previously thought — some 780,000 years ago, and possibly as many as 950,000 years ago. These intrepid predecessors of modern Homo sapiens, expanding from southern Europe, may have had a surprising ability to adapt to colder climate conditions.
The earliest humans moved to Europe from Africa around 1.8 million years ago. But because they were adapted to a warmer climate, archaeologists have so far believed that they didn't get as far north as Happisburgh — a comparatively cold, inhospitable place.
"The case is not absolutely watertight, but it is pretty good — the collective evidence strongly suggests that this is the oldest northern European site occupied by humans," says Andrew P. Roberts, a palaeomagnetist at the Australian National University in Canberra, and co-author of a Nature News & Views story on the findings
It is not known exactly how the early humans adapted to the cold climate — whether they made fires, built shelters or used clothing, says Stringer. And because there are no human remains at the site — they probably just visited it to hunt or scavenge — it is hard to make any predictions about the population size or organization of these people. "We don't know much about this early human, but we speculate that it could be the extinct species Homo antecessor — the 'Pioneer Man' — as it is the only species known in Europe at that time."(more at link)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jul/07/first-humans-britain-stone-toolsA spectacular haul of ancient flint tools has been recovered from a beach in Norfolk, pushing back the date of the first known human occupation of Britain by up to 250,000 years.
The early settlers would have walked into Britain across an ancient land bridge that once divided the North Sea from the Atlantic and connected the country to what is now mainland Europe. The first humans probably arrived during a warm interglacial period, but may have retreated as temperatures plummeted in subsequent ice ages.
Until now, the earliest evidence of humans in Britain came from Pakefield, near Lowestoft in Suffolk, where a set of stone tools dated to 700,000 years ago were uncovered in 2005. More sophisticated stone, antler and bone tools were found in the 1990s in Boxgrove, Sussex, which are believed to be half a million years old.
The latest haul of stone tools was buried in sediments that record a period of history when the polarity of the Earth's magnetic field was reversed. At the time, a compass needle would have pointed south instead of north. The last time this happened was 780,000 years ago, so the tools are at least that old.
Happisburgh, Norfolk, England - Google Maps location
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Happisburgh,+Norfolk,+England&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Happisburgh,+Norwich,+Norfolk,+UK&gl=us&ei=QBQ1TMOKFIHGlQe0-vzUBw&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBoQ8gEwAAHomo antecessor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_antecessorHomo antecessor is an extinct human species (or subspecies) dating from 1.2 million to 800,000 years ago, that was discovered by Eudald Carbonell, J. L. Arsuaga and J. M. Bermúdez de Castro. H. antecessor is one of the earliest known human varieties in Europe. Various archaeologists and anthropologists have debated how H. antecessor related to other Homo species in Europe, with suggestions that it was an evolutionary link between Homo ergaster and Homo heidelbergensis, although Richard Klein believed that it was instead a separate species that evolved from H. ergaster. Others believe that H. antecessor is in fact the same species of H.heidelbergensis, who inhabited Europe from 600,000 to 250,000 years ago in the Pleistocene.
Amazing, truly amazing.
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