A HOMINID TIBIA FROM MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE SEDIMENTS AT BOXGROVE, UK

FOSSIL hominids from the earlier Middle Pleistocene of Europe are very rare and the Mauer mandible is generally accepted as the most ancient , with an estimated age of 500 kyr(1,2). We report here on the discove ry of a human tibia, in association with stone tools, from calcareous silts at the Lower Palaeolithic site of Boxgrove, West Sussex, UK3,4 ( Fig. 1). The silt units are correlated by mammalian biostratigraphy to an, as yet unnamed, major temperate stage or interglacial that immedi ately pre-dates the Anglian cold stage(5). Accordingly, the temperate sediments are equated with oxygen isotope stage 13 (ref. 6) and are th erefore roughly coeval with the Mauer mandible. The massive tibia is t he oldest hominid fragment from the British Isles and provides the fir st information about the manufacturers of the early Acheulian industri es of Europe. It is assigned to Home cf. heidelbergensis.