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Flint findings in Kent reveal new era of prehistory

Archaeologists have discovered a previously unknown epoch in British pre-history when Stone Age hunters re-entered Britain after an absence of up to 90,000 years – because of climatically induced sea-level changes which turned the English Channel into dry land.

Until last month, no proof had ever been found for human occupation in Britain between 200,000 and 65,000 years ago – but now new evidence has revealed a human presence here in the middle of that period.

Although early humans originally arrived in Britain at least 700,000 years ago, they had been repeatedly forced out by particularly cold spells within the Ice Age.

But over subsequent millennia, their descendants and others gradually acclimatised to Europe's intermittently chilly conditions. As these early humans became more used to the cold, they evolved into a separate species of humanity, known as Neanderthal man.
Read entire article at The Independent