Boxgrove lies on the Westbourne-Arundel Raised Beach, ~5km northeast of Chichester and 12km north of the modern English Channel. Exploratory work in the 1970s (Woodcock 1981) was followed by full-scale excavation by UCL from 1983–1996, under the direction of Mark Roberts (e.g. Roberts 1986; Roberts & Parfitt 1999; Pope et al. 2020).

The excavations at Boxgrove sampled fragments of a Palaeolithic landscape, representing an erstwhile coastal embayment in the South Downs. The Pleistocene sediments rest on a marine platform created by a high sea-level event, bounded to the north by a Chalk Cliff. Immediately above the marine platform are near-shore marine deposits, forming a localised storm beach accumulation (Unit 2) and the more widespread Slindon Sands (Unit 3). These are overlain by the lagoonal/intertidal deposits of the Slindon Silts (Unit 4a–b), marking a marine regression. Towards the cliff in Quarry 1/B, a carbonate-rich sediment (4d) accumulated in a spring-fed pool in the top of the silts, with which they are probably contemporaneous. At the end of the lagoonal phase, a soil developed on the surface of the silts (4c), marking a marine regression and the beginning of fully terrestrial conditions. Freshwater flooding heralded the onset of alder carr (Unit 5), followed by the erosion of soils from the downland and cliff to form a brickearth (Unit 6). Chalk rubble associated with a cliff collapse (Unit 7) occurs towards the northern margin, near the storm beach. At the top of the sequence lies a series of gravels (Units 9–11), mass-movement deposits derived from the adjacent South Downs and emplaced under cold climate conditions of MIS 12.

In situ artefacts have been recovered throughout the sequence, with relatively sparse finds from the marine sands of Unit 3, but with tens of thousands of artefacts from the intertidal and freshwater sediments of Unit 4. Possible in situ remains also occur in the cliff collapse (7), and the cold climate gravels of Unit 11, refitting material was recovered in Bed 11, suggesting continued occupation into the early Anglian. In several cases in situ lithics are associated with butchered animal remains, including those of horse and rhinoceros, strongly indicating that Boxgrove as a hunting ground on a coastal grassland plain, to which hominins repeatedly went to exploit the rich combination of herd animals, freshwater and raw materials.

Boxgrove is dated biostratigraphically to the final Cromerian interglacial and includes the zone fossil, Megaloceros dawkinsi, and a number of other species, (including Sorex savini, S. runtonensis, Ursus deningeri and Pliomys episcopalis), which do not survive the Anglian and are absent from sites such as Swanscombe and Barnham (Roberts & Parfitt 1999). A date towards the end of MIS13 is now widely accepted, despite the huge range (MIS 6–13) suggested by various scientific dating techniques (Roberts & Parfitt 1999).

Pope, M., Roberts, M. & Parfitt, S. 2020. The Horse Butchery Site GTP17: A high-resolution record of Lower Palaeolithic hominin behaviour at Boxgrove, UK. Woking: Spoilheap Publications.

Roberts, M.B. 1986. Excavation of the Lower Palaeolithic Site at Amey's Eartham Pit, Boxgrove, West Sussex: A preliminary report. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 52: 215–245.

Roberts, M.B. & Parfitt, S.A. (eds). 1999. Boxgrove: A Middle Palaeolithic Pleistocene Hominid Site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove, West Sussex. London: English Heritage.

Woodcock, A. 1981. The Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Periods in Sussex. BAR British Series 94. Oxford: Archaeopress.