Ancient Sussex #9: Imogen Lycett Green meets Boxgrove Man (well it is the surreal issue)

A reconstruction of the head of an adult male Homo heidelbergensis. Photo by Tim Evanson (CC BY-SA)

ROSA: Good morning, Boxgrove Man, I hope I didn’t wake you up.
Boxgrove Man: It’s ok, I’m happy to hear your voice. Buried in chalk for 450,000 years, it’s been, shall we say, quiet.
ROSA: 450,000 years... freak me out! Do you know where you were buried?
BM: Where I lived, I guess, on a chalk cliff.
ROSA: To be exact it was a ridge in West Sussex running east to west – 20 metres high, 20 miles wide – parallel with the coast, eight miles north of Bognor Regis.
BM: We had a great vantage point. When you’re trying to survive in the Stone Age, vantage points are everything. And you could see far and wide, across the marshlands to the sea, abundant game spread out before you.
ROSA: Game?
BM: Well, a man’s gotta eat. There were rhinoceros and lion, bear and wolves and horses, foxes, aurochs, deer, bats. ...