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Pleistocene environments in the British Isles
543
Book Reviews
will be good to see this book in both academic and the more popular bookshops. Lewis Owen Royul Holloway, Universiry qf London, London, U.K.
Pleistocene Environments in the British Isles, by R.L. Jones and D.H. Keen. Chapman & Hall, London, Glasgow, New York, Tokyo, Melbourne and Madras, 1992,346 pp. ISBN 0 412 44190 X. f24.95 (softback). Do not be misled by the title of this excellent book. After an introductory ‘Background’ chapter, which discusses the nature of different evidence, as well as methods of geochronometric age estimates, it is based on a rigorous stratigraphical approach. After a brief chapter on the Miocene and Pliocene, standard stratigraphical subdivisions form the framework of the book: the Early (not Lower) Pleistocene; the Cromer Forest-bed Formation; Anglian; Hoxnian; Post-Hoxnian and preIpswichian; Ipswichian; Devensian; Flandrian (why not Holocene?); and an ‘Epilogue’ that is a summary, but could have been so much more if land-sea correlations, one of the themes of the book, had been developed more than in a solitary and cursory chapter. That must be the challenge for their second edition! As one who has taught this topic at a final year undergraduate level for over 25 years it is, among other things, a great boon to have such an excellent compilation of the evidence and a comprehensive list of references available for my classes. This alone shows the diligence of the authors in leaving no stones unturned in their quest for an account of the British Quatemary that is both exhaustive and careful in the way they handle areas of dispute. Indeed, a minor criticism might be that they are too evenhanded in their treatment of controversy and the reader might have welcomed a more robust statement of their own assessment of the evidence. By now oxygen isotope stratigraphy and ice-core stratigraphy makes appropriate correlations mandatory - even if they require later revision. Herein lies the excitement for young minds meeting the Quatemary for the first time. Nevertheless, and overall, this is indeed a minor comment, because the book is a treasure chest of information, carefully and succinctly presented. There are 86 line diagrams and maps, all relevant and illustrative of the text. This has been a labour of love that leaves British researchers, undergraduates and graduate students indebted to the authors. It has relevance to Europe and, offshore, to the North Atlantic. Perhaps more could have been made of North Atlantic ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere-biosphere coupling. But on the other hand, the object of the book is to enlighten readers about the land-based sequences. This book may be read to advantage by all serious students of the Quaternary everywhere. It is a successful attempt at a regional synthesis and, given the location of the subject
matter, on the margin of the north-east Atlantic, its relevance is at once global. The price is modest and it is excellent value for money. I shall have no hesitation in recommending it to my classes for some time to come, and its value is such that revised editions should be called for from time to time. D.Q. Bowen Department of Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Cardiff CFI 3 YE, Wales, U.K.
High Lodge: Excavations by G. de G. Sieveking 1962-68 and J. Cook 1988, by N.M. Ashton, J. Cook, S.G. Lewis and J. Rose. British Museum Press, London, 1992. ISBN O-7141-13697, ;E65. Those who have known about the potential importance of this archaeological site at the south-east margin of the Fenland, in Suffolk, England, have been waiting with equanimity for this volume. Their patience has been rewarded with a magnificent, well-illustrated book characterised above all else by its clarity, and its careful and systematic accounts of the Quatemary geology and the archaeology. The site has been well known for well over a century and it attracted nineteenth-century collectors of both hand-axes and flake tools. This important book will finally establish it in the minds of archaeologists and Quatemary geologists everywhere as a highly significant Middle Pleistocene European locality. It is important for its archaeological significance showing, as it does, evidence of pre-Anglian human occupation of East Anglia. This was previously thought to be unlikely because of the lack of hand-axes in Anglian glacial deposits. It also makes fundamental contributions to the lithostratigraphical succession of the Middle Pleistocene in the British Isles. In so doing, it should surely remove the last vestiges of argument about the long since defunct ‘Wolstonian’ glaciation. The Wolstonian is Anglian period! After establishing a regional and geological context, and the historical background to the excavations, sediment and stratigraphy is described in three chapters. These are followed by five chapters on aspects of the biostratigraphy (palynomorphs, pollen, charcoal, insects and mammals). Two chapters describe and discuss the High Lodge flint industries, and are followed by a summary chapter, with French and German translations. Part II of the volume consists of 73 plates, consisting of line drawings of the flake tools and bifaces collected from High Lodge at various times. The stratigraphical succession, its interpretation, archaeology and correlation is: Breckland cover sands Mildenhall upper diamicton Mildenhall upper sands and gravels
Aeolian deposits (Devensian) Debris flow Glaciofluvial outwash/derived (Anglian) bifaces and flakes
Book Reviews
will be good to see this book in both academic and the more popular bookshops. Lewis Owen Royul Holloway, Universiry qf London, London, U.K.
Pleistocene Environments in the British Isles, by R.L. Jones and D.H. Keen. Chapman & Hall, London, Glasgow, New York, Tokyo, Melbourne and Madras, 1992,346 pp. ISBN 0 412 44190 X. f24.95 (softback). Do not be misled by the title of this excellent book. After an introductory ‘Background’ chapter, which discusses the nature of different evidence, as well as methods of geochronometric age estimates, it is based on a rigorous stratigraphical approach. After a brief chapter on the Miocene and Pliocene, standard stratigraphical subdivisions form the framework of the book: the Early (not Lower) Pleistocene; the Cromer Forest-bed Formation; Anglian; Hoxnian; Post-Hoxnian and preIpswichian; Ipswichian; Devensian; Flandrian (why not Holocene?); and an ‘Epilogue’ that is a summary, but could have been so much more if land-sea correlations, one of the themes of the book, had been developed more than in a solitary and cursory chapter. That must be the challenge for their second edition! As one who has taught this topic at a final year undergraduate level for over 25 years it is, among other things, a great boon to have such an excellent compilation of the evidence and a comprehensive list of references available for my classes. This alone shows the diligence of the authors in leaving no stones unturned in their quest for an account of the British Quatemary that is both exhaustive and careful in the way they handle areas of dispute. Indeed, a minor criticism might be that they are too evenhanded in their treatment of controversy and the reader might have welcomed a more robust statement of their own assessment of the evidence. By now oxygen isotope stratigraphy and ice-core stratigraphy makes appropriate correlations mandatory - even if they require later revision. Herein lies the excitement for young minds meeting the Quatemary for the first time. Nevertheless, and overall, this is indeed a minor comment, because the book is a treasure chest of information, carefully and succinctly presented. There are 86 line diagrams and maps, all relevant and illustrative of the text. This has been a labour of love that leaves British researchers, undergraduates and graduate students indebted to the authors. It has relevance to Europe and, offshore, to the North Atlantic. Perhaps more could have been made of North Atlantic ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere-biosphere coupling. But on the other hand, the object of the book is to enlighten readers about the land-based sequences. This book may be read to advantage by all serious students of the Quaternary everywhere. It is a successful attempt at a regional synthesis and, given the location of the subject
matter, on the margin of the north-east Atlantic, its relevance is at once global. The price is modest and it is excellent value for money. I shall have no hesitation in recommending it to my classes for some time to come, and its value is such that revised editions should be called for from time to time. D.Q. Bowen Department of Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Cardiff CFI 3 YE, Wales, U.K.
High Lodge: Excavations by G. de G. Sieveking 1962-68 and J. Cook 1988, by N.M. Ashton, J. Cook, S.G. Lewis and J. Rose. British Museum Press, London, 1992. ISBN O-7141-13697, ;E65. Those who have known about the potential importance of this archaeological site at the south-east margin of the Fenland, in Suffolk, England, have been waiting with equanimity for this volume. Their patience has been rewarded with a magnificent, well-illustrated book characterised above all else by its clarity, and its careful and systematic accounts of the Quatemary geology and the archaeology. The site has been well known for well over a century and it attracted nineteenth-century collectors of both hand-axes and flake tools. This important book will finally establish it in the minds of archaeologists and Quatemary geologists everywhere as a highly significant Middle Pleistocene European locality. It is important for its archaeological significance showing, as it does, evidence of pre-Anglian human occupation of East Anglia. This was previously thought to be unlikely because of the lack of hand-axes in Anglian glacial deposits. It also makes fundamental contributions to the lithostratigraphical succession of the Middle Pleistocene in the British Isles. In so doing, it should surely remove the last vestiges of argument about the long since defunct ‘Wolstonian’ glaciation. The Wolstonian is Anglian period! After establishing a regional and geological context, and the historical background to the excavations, sediment and stratigraphy is described in three chapters. These are followed by five chapters on aspects of the biostratigraphy (palynomorphs, pollen, charcoal, insects and mammals). Two chapters describe and discuss the High Lodge flint industries, and are followed by a summary chapter, with French and German translations. Part II of the volume consists of 73 plates, consisting of line drawings of the flake tools and bifaces collected from High Lodge at various times. The stratigraphical succession, its interpretation, archaeology and correlation is: Breckland cover sands Mildenhall upper diamicton Mildenhall upper sands and gravels
Aeolian deposits (Devensian) Debris flow Glaciofluvial outwash/derived (Anglian) bifaces and flakes