Introduction
The Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) covers most of human history. The earliest tools were made in Africa over two and a half million years ago by creatures very different from ourselves. At this time, there was a wide variety of hominid (human type) species and the earliest tools were made by a species known as Homo habilis (‘handy man’), found only in Africa.
After about 1.8 million years ago, some species began to migrate from Africa, bringing stone tools with them. They include the European Homo georgicus, Homo antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis and Homo neanderthalensis (‘Neanderthal man’). All of these species made so-called handaxes as their most important tool. There are numerous examples of these tools from North Hertfordshire, especially in the Hitchin Gap.
About 120,000 years ago, a new species developed in Africa: Homo sapiens, our species. They were more inventive than the other species, making very different tools. They spread quickly from Africa into Europe, Asia and eventually the rest of the world. By 35,000 years ago, Homo sapiens was the only hominid species remaining and we all descend from these African ancestors.
Local evidence
Stone tools and plant and animal remains found at Hitchin in the 1880s and 1890s tell us that early humans were living there about 200,000 years ago. These early people lived on the wide flood-plain of an untamed, meandering river. They lived by hunting, fishing and gathering plant food.
The Hitchin finds consisted of plant remains, fossilised animal bones and hundreds of flint tools. These were discovered in soil layers at the bottom of clay pits in the Highbury area of the town. They show that people lived in this area during a warm period of the Ice Age known as the Hoxnian Interglacial, when the climate was similar to today’s.
Animal bones from the Hitchin deposits show that these early people hunted mainly horse, deer and bison. Elephant and rhino also lived on the open grassland around the river. Flowering plants, such as dandelions and thistles, grew among the grass. Tench, roach, and other fish could be caught in the river. Water lily, water plantain and similar plants grew in the river shallows. Otters, beavers and voles lived along the river’s edge. Oak, elm, hazel and birch trees grew in nearby woodland.
The typical handaxe flint tools of this period were used for skinning and cutting up animal carcases and grubbing up roots. These perople probably lived in this area in much the same way for several thousand years. We know that people lived in some parts of Britain from the beginning of the Hoxnian Interglacial through all but the coldest periods of the Ice Age. We do not know for certain, however, whether they continued to live in North Hertfordshire.