Description

Wessex Archaeology has just begun a large scale investigation into an area of seabed which lies 13km east of Great Yarmouth. This area, known as Area 240, is targeted by aggregate dredgers collecting sands and gravel for use in construction projects in the UK and on the continent.

In February 2008 75 flint tools and the remains of mammoth, bison, deer and rhino were dredged from this area. The tools are thought to date to around 100,000 years ago - before the last ice age. Prior to this discovery many experts believed that deposits of this date had been destroyed or disturbed by glaciation. These discoveries demonstrate that in some areas at least, they were not, making this one of the most significant Palaeolithic discoveries ever to come from the North Sea.