Definition: Beeches Pit is the name of a Middle Pleistocene archaeological site located in Suffolk, England, close to an abandoned channel of the Bytham/Ingham river. The site has been dated to about 400,000 years old, based on thermoluminescence, U-series and paleoenvironmental indicators.
The campsite, probably used by Homo heidelbergensis, was located next to a freshwater springs and local raw material source, and it was used on several occasions.
Activities at Beeches Pit indicate several flint-knapping episodes, although only eight Acheulean handaxes have been recovered from the site. Evidence of the use of fire is seen in burned flints, some of which are reddened and shattered, and what researchers are interpreting as at least one hearth.
Beeches Pit has been examined for several years by J.A.J. Gowlett, who has written some interesting things about what the use of fire meant to our human ancestors.
The campsite, probably used by Homo heidelbergensis, was located next to a freshwater springs and local raw material source, and it was used on several occasions.
Activities at Beeches Pit indicate several flint-knapping episodes, although only eight Acheulean handaxes have been recovered from the site. Evidence of the use of fire is seen in burned flints, some of which are reddened and shattered, and what researchers are interpreting as at least one hearth.
Beeches Pit has been examined for several years by J.A.J. Gowlett, who has written some interesting things about what the use of fire meant to our human ancestors.
Sources
Kindling passion is a general public article about Gowlett's research at Liverpool.
Gowlett, John A. J. 2006 The early settlement of northern Europe: Fire history in the context of climate change and the social brain. Comptes rendus Palevol 5299–310.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
