Important Quaternary Palaeolithic sites in Britain: their investigation and conservation

The various divisions of the Palaeolithic fall within earlier stages of the Quaternary than our present interglacial, the Flandrian or Holocene. Archaeological material of pre-Holocene age almost invariably occurs in a geological context and may be regarded as a variety of trace fossil. This is true even when the material is in primary context, as it will almost certainly have been buried by the later accumulation of sediments, although Upper Palaeolithic material may occur near to the surface. Studies of the Palaeolithic content of Quaternary deposits therefore combine with analyses of sedimentology, palaeontology, palaeopedology and, in a wider sense, stratigraphy and geomorphology within a multidisciplinary approach.