December 7, 2012

Epipaleolithic settlement found near Liverpool

A small Epipaleolithic hamlet has been discovered this Summer at Lunt Meadows, near Sefton (Merseyside County, which also includes the city of Liverpool).

The findings include flint, pebble and chert tools, and the remains of three large houses, up to six meters across. Therefore researchers infer that this people were semi-sedentary, challenging the notion of hunter-gatherers being always on the move (which is also not the case in other contexts). This semi-sedentarism was no doubt favored by the wealth of natural resources available in the Mersey estuary back in the day.

The acidity of the soil did not allow bones to survive but marks in the soil did, as well as some charcoal, which provided the date: c. 5800 BCE. Nearby Formby Beach (pictured) did also provide previously scores of human footprints, as well as animal tracks. 

The chert must have been imported from nearby Wales.

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