THE OLD STONE AGE

(Upper Palaeolithic) The Earlier Hunter-Gatherers’ Campsite 12500 Years Ago

These were the first people to use Hengistbury Head. The sea was many miles distant and Hengistbury was a hill inland overlooking a river valley and flood plain to the south. The climate was as warm but the landscape had fewer trees following the last ice age. The hunters followed migrating herds of horse and reindeer and camped for a short while on the high ground of Hengistbury ‘hill’.

The horse and reindeer provided much for the nomadic hunters; skins for clothing and shelter, bone and antler for tools and weapons and of course meat. The people gathered berries and plant foods too. Flint tools discovered during excavations may have been used for spear or arrow tips. Knives, scrapers and several examples of chisels (called burins) were found suggesting that barbed hunting equipment may have been produced from bone and antler.

Spear tip

Scraper