Maidscross Hill is located on the eastern outskirts of the village of Lakenheath, Suffolk, and 4.5km west of Brandon Fields. It stands c. 30m above Ordnance Datum at its highest, and is capped by quartz and quartzite-rich gravels, which Evans (1897) recorded as 2.5m thick and overlying Chalk bedrock. This gravel has since been shown to form part of the pre-Anglian Bytham River. The summit of the hill is scarred by pockmarks, evidence of the small-scale gravel workings that have occurred across its surface during the mid-1800s, from which Lower Palaeolithic artefact were recovered (Flower 1869; Evans 1872, 1897; Wymer 1985).

Two sequences of deposits have since been recorded at Maidscross Hill. The upper sequence is assigned to the Timworth Gravel Member, part of the now extinct Bytham River, and dated to MIS 14 on the basis of lithostratigraphy and ESR dating (Voinchet et al. 2015a–b; Lewis et al. 2021). The lower sequence, found on the eastern flank of the hill, displays parallels to that observed at Warren Hill (Ashton & Lewis 2005; Davis et al. 2021). This would suggest a date of MIS 12. While these later deposits were quarried in the mid-twentieth century, after the period of artefact collection, the presence of two separate terraces is important for the interpretation of the archaeology.

The majority of the handaxes known to have originated from this area are recorded only as coming from Lakenheath; only nine can be definitely assigned to Maidscross Hill itself. This said, the only significant gravel workings within the area that were active during the 1800s were located on Maidscross Hill. The assemblage presents a mix of cruder, pointed tools in rolled condition alongside more refined ovate forms. Davis et al. (2021) have suggested that the cruder handaxes were most likely found in the gravels of the Timworth terrace, which dates to MIS 14, but their rolled condition suggests that they were derived from an MIS 15 land surface. The ovates, on the other hand, are suggested to originate from the surface of the Timworth terrace, which conforms with the patination and frost fracturing seen on their surface. This would suggest a MIS 13 date for these artefacts. Davis et al.’s interpretation accords well with what Evans (1897) records, namely that handaxes found at the top of the hill were generally pointed forms, while finely worked ovates were found lower down the slopes.

Ashton, N.M. & Lewis, S.G. 2005. Maidscross Hill, Lakenheath. Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute for Archaeology and Natural History 41: 122–123.

Davis, R., Ashton, N., Hatch, M., Hoare, P.G. and Lewis, S.G., 2021. Palaeolithic archaeology of the Bytham River: human occupation of Britain during the early Middle Pleistocene and its European context. Journal of Quaternary Science 36: 526–546.

Evans, J. 1872. Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain. First Edition. London: Longmans & Co.

Evans, S.J. 1897. Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain. Second Edition. London: Longmans & Co.

Flower, J.W. 1869. On some recent discoveries of flint implements of the Drift in Norfolk and Suffolk, with observations on the theories accounting for their distribution. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 25: 449–460.

Lewis, S.G., Ashton, N., Davis, R., Hatch, M., Hoare, P.G., Voinchet, P. & Bahain, J.-J. 2021. A revised terrace stratigraphy and chronology for the early Middle Pleistocene Bytham River in the Breckland of East Anglia, UK. Quaternary Science Reviews 269: 107113.

Voinchet, P., Moreno, D., Bahain, J.-J., Tissoux, H., Tombret, O., Falgu_eres, C., Moncel, M.H., Schreve, D., Candy, I., Antoine, P., Ashton, N., Beamish, M., Cliquet, D., Despriee, J., Lewis, S.G., Limondin-Lozouet, N., Locht, J.-L., Parfitt, S. & Pope, M. 2015a. New chronological data (ESR and ESR/U-series) for the earliest Acheulian sites of north-western Europe. Journal of Quaternary Science 30: 610–622.

Voinchet, P., Pereira, A., Nomade, S., Falgu_eres, C., Biddittu, I., Piperno, M., Moncel, M.-H. & Bahain, J.-J., 2020. ESR dating applied to optically bleached quartz - a comparison with 40Ar/39Ar chronologies on Italian Middle Pleistocene sequences. Quaternary International 556 : 113–123.

Wymer, J.J. 1985. Palaeolithic Sites of East Anglia. Norwich: Geobooks.