PREHISTORIC BRISTOL The Prehistory of the Lower Bristol Avon L. V. GRINSELL 16SUED BY THE BRISTOL BRANCH OF THE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION THE U'NIVERStTY, BRISTOL Price Four Shillings 1969 Printed by F. Bailey & Son Ltd. Dursley BRISTOL BRANCH OF THE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION LOCAL HISTORY ·PAMPHLETS PREHISTORIC BRISTOL PATRICK McGRATH The Prehistory of the Lower Bristol ·Avon Assistant General Editor: PETER HARRIS by L. V. GRINSELL Prehistoric Bristol is the twenty-third pamphlet published by the Bristol Branch of the Historical Association. Its auithor, Mr. L. V. Grinsell, is Curator of Archaeology in the City Museum, Bristol, For ithe puripose of this publication, 'the Bflistol iarea is con­ and his publications include Ancient Burial Mounds of England sidered as the area between Keynsh:am and .the o'Ultflow of the (Methuen, 1936; 2nd edition, 1953), The Archaeology of Wessex Brisitol Avon at Avonmouth, including a stTip vary,ing between (Methuen, 1958) and The Preparation of Archaeological Reports one and four miles wide on each side of the river, as shown on (jointly with P.A. Rahtz and Alan Waiihurst), as well as numerous Maps I�IV. This survey is intended to deal as completely as papers in the Proceedings and Transactions of various national possible wlith 1Jhe area covered 1by !these Maps, and to 1treat in less and local archaeological societies. He is a Fellow of the Society of detail mate.rial outside 1lhat area, Whioh will be invoked oniy Antiquaries, Hon. Tveasurer of the Prehistoric Society since 1947, when neces,sa,ry to sitress a point that '1s not cove,red by si,te,s or and Chairman of ithe Bristol Archaeological Research Group. finds sitidtly wiithin the area. Other pamphlets in course of preparation include Mr. M. Q. Smith's �tudy of the medieval churches of Bristol, Mr. Grahame Farr's e�amination of Bristol shipbuilding in the nineteenth The Lower Palaeolithic Period {roughliy from 200,000 to 100,000 century, and a pamphlet on John Wesley and Bristol by Dr. John years ago). Map I. Kent. This iperiod is represented in ithe vaHey of the Bris�ol Avon Miss K. M. D. Barker's two pamphlets on the history of by the Acheulian industries, named from the type station of St. The Aoheul in the Somme vaBey, whidh has yielded many ovate and Theatre Royal, Bristol, have enjoyed great popularity. The second pamphlet is out of print, but, thanks to a generous response pear-shaped hand-axes charaoteris:tic of rthe period. Tihese industries to an appeal, it has been posS'1ble to reprint the first of the fliomished dming 'the very long Second Interglacial phase, a warm pamphlets which now goes into third edition. period which suppo!ited animals such as the anci,ent straight­ its tusked elephant, the hunting of whfoh comprised 1the basic economy A full list of publications will be found on the inside back cover. of the time. Trees utilized by man inc1uded yew from which he The pamphlets can be obtained from most Bristol booksellers or :i£ knownto h:ave made spears. direot from Mr. Peter Harris, 74 Bell Barn Road, Stoke Bishop, Early in the nineteenth century, ,elephants' teeth were reported Bristol 9, BS9 2DG. They are also on sale at the Porters' Lodge it is not known whevher they in the Wills Memorial Building and in the Senate House. The from :the· Shirehampton gravels but Branch hopes that readers will help its work by placing standing orders for future productions. were of Elephas antiquus (warm) or elephas przmigenius (cold: mammoth).1 Remains of Elephas antiquus were found in :the rock fissure on Durdham Down early last oentury, but many more have come from,rhe gra v·els between Ba1:lhand Kelston. Hundreds of implements of flint and ohert, predominantly • .. Aoheulian hand-axes and tools of related forms, have heen found �·� in the gravels of the Lower Bristol Avon, -in the ·region of the ',ii � '- 'iii 80-100 rfoot terrace .of its forerunner. This means that the river 0 '- <; 0 has cut ithat depth into Ii.its channel by erosion sinroe !those who i C i made rhe implemen1ts were living on ilts hanks. By far 'llhe most prolific site is at Chapel Pill Farm1 where more than a hundred implements have been found by •the late R. G. Hughes, T. R. Fry and o!thern during !the last forty years. Muoh smaller numbers have come fr.om sev·eral ,sites in tihe v-icinity of Shirehampton and Bris1linigton. They are mostly :in rthe Ciity Museum and rhe Museum of the Univers,irty Spelaeological Sooiety, lbut a few are in ,private hands. They are mostly .somewhat uniaittraotive in appearance because of the poor quality of �he looal raw maiterial.2 The Middle and Upper Palaeolithic Periods (roughly from 100,000 years ago to 10,000 B.C.). The Middle PalaeoI,irthic is so far unrepresented in .the area, the nearest site where iit occur,s being the Hyaena Den at Wookey. 3 11he Upper Pafaeoliithic was a ·cold period daiting from the last (or Wi.i-rm) ·glacial phase, during which 'the economy was hunting and food-gaithering. The animals included mammoth, retindeer, woolly rihinoceros, and wild horse. ·Bones of all these and other animals of 1the •period were found in .the Durdlham Down Fissure earlry 101st century. This is believed to have been a n'atural pi�faH and no artifacts of the period were found.4 Most of the evidence ...; of ,human settlement in this period comes from caves including �u:::r:: - 1. J. Rutter. Delineations of North-West Somerset (1829), 315. �I 2. A. D. LacaiiHe. "PalaeoHt:<bs from 1the tower rea'Cihes of the BI'lis,tJo,l :J� Avon", in Antiq. J. 34 (1954), 1-27; T. R iFry, "further Notes on the 0 :J Gmvel Terraces :o!f the Bristol Avon, and 1t'heir P,a:J.ae()IHths ", in WQ Pro. Univ. Bristol Spelaeol. Soc. 7, ·3 (1956) 121-9; D. A. Roe, A a.. <! (/) Gazetteer of the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Siites (C. B. A. ,A ..J w Research Report No. 8, 1968), 71-2, 256. 3. A few flint implements found near !Sit. Anne's Park, BnisHngton, about i � � 1926, and then pU'blii!Slhed as Mouste11ian (Midd:le Pa,1aeo1ithic), are now known tio be Middle Acheul'ian. Proc. Univ. Bristol SpelaeoL Soc. 7, 3 (1956), 129. 4. E. Wilson, The Bone Cavern or F,issure on Durdham Down", ,in Proc. Bristol Natur. Soc. N.S.5 (1885), 31-45. 3 those of Cheddar and Wookey. There may have been a small tions at the medi,ev,aJl oollege at Wes,tbury-on-Trym in 1968, open ,s,ite between Mendip and the Bristol Avon in the Chew micr:oliths and microlithic flakes were found. VaUey, where :a flint knife of CresweUi:an type and some flint blades were found in 1953. 1 The Neolithic Period (roughly 3,500 B.C. .to 1_,700 B.C.) Map II. The 1term "Neolithic Revolution" has been associated with this period, because it witnes,s·ed several fundamental techno­ The Mesolithic Period (roughly between 10,000 and 3,500 B.C.) log�cal advances, including the introduction and development of Map I. �gnculture and pasture, the grinding and polishing of a propor­ The retreat of the final glaciation and me'liting of the ice-cap t10n of axe-heads and other implements of flint and sttone, and led to a rise in .sea-level, and amund 5,500 B.C. to ithe formation the inven1Hon of the art of pottery-mak,ing. The introduction of cereal cul,tiv,ation and the domestication of :animals were iinev:itably of the Eng1'i1sh Channel and much of .the Severn estuary. Animals useful to man now included early<types of dog, and planrts included accompanied by a reduction in the area of woodland, effected birch, ,�he bark of whioh wa:s used for extracting resin to use as pa1ity by burning, party by the activities of siheep and cattle, an adhes1ive for fixing B,init implements into their ha�ts of bone, and pa,ritly by 1tree-felling with ground and poliished axe-heads of stone and flint, which have been :shown by ,experiment to be more antler, or wood. The ,economy of the pe.1:iod compr-ised hunting, r food-gathering and fishing. Continuance of the marine 1transgres­ effective than axe-heads that have been chipped only. Axe-heads of greenstone, probably derived from Cornish stone-axe fac'tory sites, sion (encroachment of the ,sea on the land) however resulted in o many of the coas!tal s�tes of :this period becoming subsequently the prducts ifrom which were traded up !the Bris1tol Channel and submerged, rendering our present knowledge of the coastal and the Bris:tol Avon, have been found ait Abbots Leigh and Long vivernide aspect of 1the settlement pattern quite incomplete. Our Ashton. Axe-heads of flint, sometimes chipped only but more knowledge of 1he upland aspeot of the disrtr.ibution paittern has oft�n ground and/or poli,shed, have come from Abbots Leigh, been condi:nioned largely by the extent to whioh arable fields have Leigh Woods Park, Lei,gh Court, Failand, and Bishopswonth. been searched by coHectors of flintimplements. These must have be·en made of flint •impOited from the Wessex Flint and srtone industries of the period compr1ise largely an Cha!lk along either the Mendip ridgeway or the Bristol Avon. ·easily distinguishable light industry characterized by miniature T�e flint was imported as raw materia:l, there being abundant worked ffints known as microli.ths of many different types, but evidence of local flint-working in the form of hammerstones mostly inserted irnto haifts of 1bone, antler, or wood, for use in fabricators, cores, and waste flakes, especiaHy between lt!he A vo� hunting and fishing; and :a heavy industry of larger implemerns and the Failand Ridge.