Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

The beds at Mundesley extend from the lattermost Cromer Forest Bed times, at about .4 million years, to the lower part of the Pre-Pastonian cold stage, estimated variously at 0.8 or 1.75 million years (West 1980, p. 182; Nilsson 1983, p. 308). But most of the Mundesley strata are identified with the Cromerian temperate stage of East Anglia (West 1980, p. 201). One should note that the Cromerian temperate stage of East Anglia, dated roughly at .4–.5 million years, is not the same as the Cromer complex of northwestern European glacials and interglacials, dated at .4–.8 million years (Nilsson 1983, p. 308).

Figure 2.9. Cross section of a piece of cut wood from the Cromer Forest Bed. The arrow indicates a groove, possibly from an initial cut by a sawing implement (Moir 1917b).

In the course of his comments about the piece of cut wood, Moir (1927, p. 47) made these observations: “The specimen, which is quite comparable with other wood found in the Forest Bed, is . . . slightly curved, four-sided, and is flat at one end and pointed at the other. . . . The flat end appears to have been produced by sawing with a sharp flint, and at one spot it seems that the line of cutting has been corrected [Figure 2.9], as is often necessary when starting to cut wood with a modern steel saw. The present form of the specimen is due to the original round piece of wood—which has been identified by Dr. A. B. Rendle, F.R.S., as yew—having been split four times longitudinally in the direction of its natural grain. The pointed end is somewhat blackened as if by fire, and it is possible that the specimen represents a primitive digging stick used for grubbing up roots.”

While there is an outside chance that beings of the Homo erectus type might have been present in England during the time of the Cromer Forest Bed, the level of technological sophistication implied by this sawn wood tool is extraordinary and suggestive of sapiens-like capabilities. In fact, it is hard to see how this kind of sawing could have been produced even by stone implements. Small flint chips mounted in a wooden holder, for example, would not have produced the clean cut evident on the specimen because the wooden holder would have been wider than the flint teeth. Hence one could not have cut a narrow groove with such a device. A saw blade made only of stone would have been extremely brittle and would not have lasted long enough to perform the operation. Furthermore it would have been quite an accomplishment to make such a stone blade. Thus it seems that only a metal saw could produce the observed sawing. Of course, a metal saw at .4–.5 million years is quite anomalous.

It is remarkable that the incised bones, bone implements, and other artifacts from the Red Crag and Cromer Forest Beds are hardly mentioned at all in today’s standard textbooks and references. This is especially true in the case of the Cromer Forest Bed finds, most of which are, in terms of their age, bordering on the acceptable, in terms of the modern paleoanthropological sequence of events.

In Gowlett’s Ascent to Civilization (1984, p. 88), we read: “There is a possibility that some finds from Britain are older than the Hoxnian [an interglacial period dated approximately 330,000 years ago]: for example the high terrace finds from Fordwich and from Kent’s Cavern near Torquay. The importance of such finds lies in the demonstration that perhaps as much as 500,000 years ago, man was able at least for a time to colonize Europe out to its extremities. At Westbury-sub-Mendip, in south-west England, remains of extinct animals associated with very few stone tools suggest contemporaneity with the Cromerian phase, estimated at c. 0.7–0.5 million years, and named after beds in eastern England, where there are faunal remains but no archaeological traces.” Elsewhere Gowlett stated “it is safest to assume that the first occupation of Europe would have been by tool-making men in the earlier Pleistocene.” This would “imply a date about 1.5 million years ago” (Gowlett 1984, p. 76).