Early Humans by Nicholas Ashton

Author:Nicholas Ashton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2017-05-11T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Island Britain: 125,000 Years Ago

HORATIO NELSON LOOKS DOWN FROM his column on to one of London’s best hidden, but most remarkable sites. Beneath Trafalgar Square lie the remains of a former course of the River Thames. Nelson might have been surprised to discover that 125,000 years ago he would have been gazing on pods of hippopotamus wallowing in the sluggish shallows of the river with herds of rhinoceros and elephant grazing on the banks. The valley would have been teaming with other herds of deer and bison, with rich deciduous forests on the valley slopes and hills beyond. But is something missing. Wolves and lions still abound and in fact are flourishing, but where are the humans? This was a land of plenty, but devoid of the world’s most efficient hunters. Neanderthals had failed to reach this far-flung peninsula of Europe before a rapid rise in sea-levels had severed Britain from mainland Europe. This period we call the Ipswichian Interglacial, after a site called Bobbitshole on the outskirts of the Suffolk county town.

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