Clue to Ice Age Britons
Neanderthal man was living in Britain at the start of the last Ice Age –40,000 years earlier than previously thought, archaeologists have said.
Francis Wenban-Smith from the University of Southampton discovered two ancient flint hand tools used to cut meat at the M25/A2 road junction at Dartford, Kent, during an excavation funded by the Highways Agency.
Tests on sediment surrounding the flints showed they date from about 100,000 years ago – proving Neanderthals were living in Britain at this time.
The country was previously assumed to have been uninhabited during this period.