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Monument Types

• ENVIRONMENTAL DEPOSIT (Marine Isotope Stage 15 to Marine Isotope Stage 13 - 619050 BC to 476050 BC)

Full description

Comprises pre-glacial fluvial sands and gravels infilling a palaeochannel, associated with the Bray's Silt Bed, a 1m thick bed of silt containing palaeoenvironmental remains indicative of an interglacial environment. Pre-Anglian deposits containing palaeoenvironmental evidence in the West Midlands (and to a lesser extent, nationally) are very rare and therefore identifying the extent of these deposits is of regional and national importance. Pre-Anglian environmental remains are unknown from Worcestershire but identifying former courses/tributaries of the Mathon would provide a source for this material. The poorly understood Mathon system needs further investigation as mapping its course will be key in understanding the hydrological history of the West Midlands. Hominin and artefactual remains are known from Pre-Anglian deposits (Happisburgh, Pakefield, Boxgrove, Waverley Wood) but none have been identified in this area of the country and given the potential for a non-Thames or non-Bytham migration route into Britain via the Mathon, investigation of these deposits is of national significance.

In 2013 research was performed by Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology service for the National Heritage Protection Plan Project "Putting the Palaeolithic into Worcestershire's HER". The project identified a number of areas of palaeolithic potential. [1]

Sources and further reading

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.