According to Pharmacylib, the different phases of the Paleolithic of Great Britain are known for numerous and important deposits. Human remains (an occipital and two parietals of the same skull cap), referring to a preneanderthal, were found, in 1935, 1936 and 1955, in Swanscombe (Kent), where there is a level with industry referring to the Clactonian, underlying a two-level sequence of the Acheulean. From the eponymous field of Clacton-on-Sea (Essex), the “clactonian” facies, defined by H. Breuil in 1932, takes its name, whose interpretation as a phylum in its own right it has subsequently suffered numerous criticisms. An abundant fauna, more recent than Swanscombe, including ancient elephant, elapse deer, primeval ox, fallow deer (Dama clactoniana) and rhinoceros, is associated at this site with industry on splinters characterized by very open angle of detachment, wide and smooth heels, some instrument on pebble and absence of double-sided. Acheulean and Mousterian industries are known at High Lodge (Suffolk) and two Acheulean levels have been recognized at Hoxne (Suffolk). The Cotte de Saint-Brelade cave in the island of Jersey gave an important industry of the middle Paleolithic and human teeth related to a Neanderthal. Human remains also come from the Pontnewydd cave (Wales), from mid-recent Pleistocene levels, with Upper Acheulean industry of Levallois technique and rhino, reindeer and equid fauna. An important and long sequence starting with the Acheulean (ca. 300,000 years ago), followed by Mousterian industry and a complete Upper Paleolithic sequence, is known at Kent’s Cavern (Devon). The Upper Paleolithic begins with a transitional aspect (Lincombian), whose most ancient phases are dated to ca. 38,000 years ago, Aurignacian (27,000 years), from the Maisierian (26,000 / 22,000 years), considered a variant of the ancient stage of the upper Perigordian, and from the Creswellian, in its various phases, dated from 20,000 to 10,000 years ago, corresponding to the final middle part of the upper Paleolithic of the rest of Europe.
This succession of industries is found in other fields such as, for example, Pin Hole and Robin Hood Cave (Derbyshire), sites whose sequence begins with Mousterian industries. An important upper Paleolithic burial, dated to 18,460 ± 340 years from now, known as the “Red Lady” (actually a young male, referring to the type of Cro-Magnon and covered with ocher), was found in 1823 in the Paviland cave (Wales), where a deposit attributed mostly to the Aurignacian and Creswellian was kept. Numerous ivory ornaments were part of the funerary equipment of this tomb. The Mesolithic of Star Carr (Yorkshire) is dated to the 8th millennium (C14 = 7611 ± 120 BC and 7540 ± 350 BC), a deposit of great importance due to the presence of inhabited structures and the numerous data of paleoeconomic type that have been highlighted there. With a certain delay compared to the corresponding continental cultures, the Neolithic ones developed which saw the use of various deposits of flint such as that of Grime’s Graves. Among the Neolithic cultures of the British Isles, the Irish one of Bann and, above all, that of Windmill Hill, deserve a particular mention, while the culture of corded decorated pottery belongs to later times. The first megalithic monuments date back to the final Neolithic (4th millennium BC), whose size and distribution made us think that they were real territorial indicators. Another element of particular interest, documented starting from this period, is the presence of traces of plowing and real divisions into cultivable plots. Particularly widespread, in the following Eneolithic period, is the cultural facies of the bell-shaped vase; of this period is the monumentalization of the imposing megalithic circle of Stonehenge. During the Bronze Age, the rich culture of Wessex indicates greater social articulation. To this same period belong objects of ornament and bronzes that reveal a clear influence of the Aegean area; in this regard, the importance of tin deposits should be emphasized. Towards the end of the first half of the first millennium a. C. Iron metallurgy also spread to the British Isles, with various facies, such as that of All Canning of the cultures of Hallstatt and, later, of La Tène.
