A PRELIMINARY-REPORT ON THE STANTON-HARCOURT CHANNEL DEPOSITS (OXFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND) - GEOLOGICAL CONTEXT, VERTEBRATE REMAINS AND PALEOLITHIC STONE ARTIFACTS

A summary is given of the geological, faunal and archaeological inform ation obtained during excavations in the Stanton Harcourt Channel Depo sits from 1990 to 1995. The channel deposits underlie the 'cold-climat e' Stanton Harcourt Gravel Member of the Summertown-Radley Terrace For mation. The Channel sediments are attributed to Oxygen Isotope Stage 7 , when the Thames was undergoing down-dip migration and eroding the We ymouth Member of the Oxford Clay (Upper Jurassic), the contemporary Ju rassic (Corallian) escarpment being near to Stanton Harcourt at that t ime. Abundant large vertebrate remains have been recovered, mainly fro m the base of the Channel deposits, where a cobble and boulder bed res ts on thin silt or sand horizons or in scour hollows in the clay bedro ck. Smaller bones occur throughout the deposits, which are mainly poor ly sorted gravels, but especially at erosive horizons. Several palaeol ithic artefacts have been found in the same contexts; many of the bone s and some of the artefacts appear not to have been transported far. A lthough the artefacts cannot be linked directly with the bones, a stud y of them adds to our knowledge of the Middle Pleistocene human settle ment of the Upper Thames Valley. It is of interest that mammoth is abu ndant as part of the interglacial faunal assemblage, and the significa nce of this is discussed. The environment clearly included substantial areas of open grassland, although there was also some forest in the v icinity. Evidence appears to be accumulating for important faunal and floral differences between particular interglacial events during the B ritish Middle and Late Pleistocene.