The famous Lower Palaeolithic site at Hoxne was first discovered in 1797 (Frere 1800) and has since been subject to several geological and archaeological excavations (Evans et al. 1896; Moir 1926; West & McBurney 1955; Singer et al. 1993; Ashton et al. 2008). It forms the stratotype for the eponymous Hoxnian Interglacial (Mitchell et al. 1973).

The deposits at Hoxne lie at ~36m above Ordnance Datum on the interfluve between the rivers Dove and Goldbrook. The solid geology is Chalk, overlain by Lower Pleistocene Crag, glacio-fluvial deposits, and ~16m of Lowestoft Till (MIS 12) (Singer et al. 1993). The site sits in a hollow in the till about 570m wide and 14m deep, probably a kettle-hole, which gradually infilled with a series of lacustrine and fluvial deposits. The base of the sequence (Beds F–D) represents a lake that gradually infilled with clayey-muds throughout much of the Hoxnian interglacial (Pollen Zones HoI–HoIIIa; West 1956) (see Figure 1). The environment of the thickest lakebed, Stratum E, was characterised by fully temperate deciduous woodland, with a prominent non-arboreal pollen zone at the top representing a brief period of deforestation. Bed D represents a drop in the water table and the onset of marshy conditions locally, characterised by the development of alder carr during HoIIIa. The rest of the interglacial—HoIIIb-HoVI—is apparently missing from the sequence due to a depositional hiatus. Renewed lacustrine sedimentation began in Bed C (the famous arctic beds of Clement Reid, in Evans et al. 1896) under very cold climatic conditions. Stratum B marks a major transformation in the hydrology of the site, with and the establishment of a fluvial system. The fauna from Stratum B includes macaque, beaver and fallow deer indicative of temperate woodland, with field vole, horse, lion and giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus) suggesting more open, grassy conditions. Warm conditions persisted during the deposition of Stratum A2(iii), followed by deteriorating climatic conditions in the remainder of Stratum A2 and Stratum A1. Ashton et al. (2008a) concluded that the lacustrine beds belonged to first prolonged substage of MIS11c, and that Strata C, B and A represented climatic fluctuations within the same isotope stage, probably MIS11b and MIS11a.

Many hundreds of artefacts have been collected from Hoxne, although remarkably few have been found during formal excavations and fewer still can be securely provenanced to a specific bed. The most recent work has shown the presence of at least two primary context assemblages: the Lower Industry, associated with renewed temperate conditions at the base of Stratum B1, and the Upper Industry, recovered from the upper part of Stratum A2. This would suggest that the archaeology from Hoxne was deposited during the second warm substage, MIS 11a, although the fact that some of the artefacts from the base of Stratum B could have potentially been derived from stripped from exposures of Bed E and D on the erstwhile lake edges, must also be considered.

Roe attributed a combined Hoxne sample of 100 handaxes to Group II, sub-group B, with Hitchin and Dovercourt.

Ashton, N., Lewis, S.G., Parfitt, S., Penkman, K.E.H. & Coope, G.R. 2008. New evidence for complex climate change in MIS11 from Hoxne, UK. Quaternary Science Reviews 27: 652–668.

Evans, J., Morse, E., Reid, C., Ridley, E.P. & Ridley, H.N. 1896. The relation of Palaeolithic man to the glacial epoch. Report of the Meeting of the British Association held at Liverpool 1896: 400–416.

Frere, J. 1800. Account of flint weapons discovered at Hoxne in Suffolk. Archaeologia 13: 204–205.

Moir, J.R. 1926. The silted-up lake of Hoxne and its contained implements. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia 5: 137–165.

Singer, R., Gladfelter, B.G. and Wymer, J.J. (eds). 1993. The Lower Palaeolithic Site at Hoxne, England. Chicago: Chicago Press.

West, R.G. 1956. The Quaternary deposits at Hoxne, Suffolk. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 239: 265–356.

West, R.G. & McBurney, C.M.B. 1954. The Quaternary deposits at Hoxne, Suffolk and their archaeology. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 20: 131–154.