The University of Sheffield

Graduate Student, Archaeology

Thesis Title: Approaches to changes in lithic technology in the Upper and Final Palaeolithic

About

My research focuses on the different lithic techno-complexes that have been attributed to the Lateand Final Upper Palaeolithic period in Britain. During this period, humans were beginning to reoccupy Britain after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), as the climate ameliorated and the ice sheets retreated.

When it comes to these lithic technologies, it is often the differences between those seen in Britain and those seen on the continent that have been emphasised. This has effectively led to a perception of a Britain that was isolated from the rest of Northwest Europe. My research aims instead to emphasise the similarities between these technologies, showing in fact a Britain that was an integrated part of the landscape (especially bearing in mind the vast expanse of Doggerland that effectively made Britain a part of mainland Europe at the time), and that human groups that occupied or visited Britain at this time had a far stronger relationship with human groups in the rest of the continent than previously envisaged.

This concept has implications for models of subsistence, landscape inhabitation and mobility for Palaeolithic hunter gatherers. It is also part of a desire to move away from the 'culture-history' approach that has dogged Palaeolithic studies well into recent years with the view of different techno-complexes equating to different 'cultural groups', towards an integrated approach that considers technocomplexes as responses, strategies and adaptations to different environments.