11 - The British Earlier Upper Palaeolithic: Settlement and Chronology

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of the Earlier Upper Palaeolithic human record from the British Isles, and how our understanding of the period has been transformed by new radiocarbon determinations. The radiocarbon results come from the British Isles and, more recently, from sites in continental Europe. Together with observations on artefact technology and change these suggest a much more complex human history that has been supposed, with at least six ‘settlement events’. The quantity of archaeological evidence appears to diminish with each settlement event as the Last Glacial Maximum nears, suggesting that climatic deterioration became a greater influence on the presence of humans even as their technological ability to cope to colder conditions steadily improved.