Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Boxgrove (
e4
), about 4 km northeast of central Chichester, has attracted a lot of
interest because of the remarkable information it has provided on the conditions at the
northern edge of the coastal plain here during the middle Pleistocene. A number of
gravel pits have revealed an ancient cliff line cut into the Chalk forming the toe of the
South Downs. Marine sediments rest on a wave-cut platform in the Chalk bedrock and
are covered by layers formed by periodic slumping of Chalk debris that alternate with
lagoonal sediments, soils and freshwater deposits. The special interest of this situation
is that fossil bones of early humans have been found here, along with stone artefacts
and the remains of rhinoceros, horse and red deer that appear to have been butchered
by the humans. These people appear to have been an archaic form of
Homo sapiens
,
referred to by some as Heidelberg man, rather than Neanderthal. The deposits probably
date from episodes before the Anglian cold episode, perhaps 500,000 years ago.
FIG
134.
Selsey Bill (Fig. 129,
e5
), looking northwestward. (Copyright Dae Sasitorn &
Adrian Warren/www.lastrefuge.co.uk)
