The English Rivers Palaeolithic Survey Project

Southern Britain is rich in Palaeolithic sites resulting from intermittent episodes of activity spanning the last half million years. These sites, which provide the earliest evidence for people in Britain, are (with rare exceptions such as Boxgrove) represented by stone tools and waste products of tool manufacture within river sediments, often associated with animal remains, environmental data, and dating evidence. Only France can qualify as having sites of comparable numbers and richness, but southern Britain has the additional merit of having been in closer proximity to the numerous advances and retreats of the Arctic ice sheets which characterise the Pleistocene, thus allowing the construction of a chronological sequence into which the archaeological sites can be placed. In addition, in recent years there has been a great advance in geological studies of river sediments, mainly gravels, which contain or cover the archaeological evidence, and in the large and ever-growing number of scientific techniques which can be applied to interpret that evidence.

Despite their importance nationally and internationally, until recent years the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic sites of England have remained a rather neglected resource in management terms. Statutory protection is virtually non-existent, and conservation (as part of the planning process) rarely considered, largely perhaps because of the difficulties perceived in assessing the nature of specific sites and the lack of comprehensive and comprehensible information available to the planning authorities. In order to understand better the relationship between early people and their environments, and the mechanism by which archaeological evidence was incorporated into the geological record, the deposits which potentially hold appropriate sites must be distinguished from those of lesser value. With threats to Quaternary deposits from the quarrying of mineral aggregates, from major road and rail infrastructure schemes, and from burial beneath urban expansion, the best sites will undoubtedly warrant protection, if appropriate through statutory powers.

The realisation that a limited and valuable archaeological resource was endangered by lack of information prompted English Heritage to take an important initiative by commissioning a project to review all discoveries of this period. An initial study of southern England (the Southern Rivers Palaeolithic Survey) was commissioned in 1991 and completed in 1994, and a further project (the English Rivers Palaeolithic Survey) to complete the national overview commenced in 1994. Although it will have taken six years to complete, by March 1997 a consistent national picture will have been created. From a comprehensive national perspective, it will be possible to take strategic decisions on the protection of certain sites and the desirability of investigating others.

The best means of preserving Palaeolithic sites is likely to be through the conscientious implementation of well-formulated local authority policies which follow the advice of PPG16. Thus the single stated aim of the whole project is to assess the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic resource in the context of contemporary Quaternary deposits for the purposes of its better management and protection and the furtherance of academic knowledge. One of the principal objectives of the project therefore is to highlight those sites or gravel deposits which merit protection. A further aspect to the project is to consider the best means by which Palaeolithic sites may be assessed and evaluated in the field, in line with present guidance. To this end it is intended that during 1996 there will be opportunities for consultation and seminars to develop appropriate strategies. The work is undertaken by Wessex Archaeology (led by Dr John Wymer), with academic advice from Professor Clive Gamble of Southampton University and a panel of experts which meets periodically. The project has also benefited greatly from the cooperation and assistance of the County and District Archaeological Officers and their colleagues in Planning and Minerals Departments, and from the British Geological Survey.

For the purposes of the survey, England has been divided into 12 regions broadly based on the drainage pattern of the major rivers, and the sizes of the regions also reflects the density of known sites. The six regions south of the Severn Estuary and the Thames were studied between 1991 and 1994, as part of the Southern Rivers Survey, and the middle and lower Thames and Warwickshire Avon/Severn drainage were studied in 1994-95; the Ouse drainage, the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Wolds, and the remainder of the north are being studied during 1995-96, leaving East Anglia and the Trent drainage to be studied by 1997.

Three principal aspects are studied in each area. First, a database is created of all known discoveries of Lower Palaeolithic artefacts, each entry recording provenance, date and circumstances of discovery, source of information, location, and quantification. These records sometimes require verification through visits to find spots or museums and through discussions with other researchers and collectors. The second aspect is the plotting of Quaternary deposits, and the third is the record of mineral extraction: many discoveries have been made during extraction but this process has also proved extremely destructive to potentially significant deposits.

From these studies a major report on each region is compiled annually. Each report contains descriptive sections on the geology and the history of discovery, a gazetteer of all sites within the region, and, crucially, an interpretation and assessment of the resource. In each case the main text is supported by appendices on mineral extraction and the sources of information, as well as explanatory diagrams. A major component of the report is a separate atlas of maps charting the extent of geological deposits and the sites of archaeological discoveries in relation to those deposits. The complexity of the data illustrated means that the use of AutoCad in the generation of the mapping is essential. The annual reports, each containing data and assessment of two regions, are parts of a longer term strategy. However, given the pressures from modern development on Palaeolithic sites, copies of the reports are sent on completion to the relevant County Council Archaeological Officers for use in development control, and there are already examples of mitigation strategies for individual sites being developed more readily because of the data now available to County Archaeological Officers. Although only a limited number of the reports have been published, they are available for public consultation both through County Councils and a number of national institutions and university libraries. At the end of the six-year project, it is intended to collate the annual reports into a single publication in a format suitable for wider dissemination.

Such a survey has never been achieved on a national scale before and places British studies at the forefront of European standards of documentation for the period. The study of Lower Palaeolithic sites marks the congruence of archaeology and geology: although specialised studies may diverge there is a common aim in the better understanding of the Quaternary era, and similarly, there are common goals in the conservation and protection of important sites. The English Rivers Palaeolithic Survey will provide the cornerstone for selective conservation strategies, whether protection is best implemented through archaeological or earth science statutes. It also provides an incomparable database for the study of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic sites either regionally or individually.