Link sent in by Kevin – www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/remains-grantham-road-archaeo… … the remains of humans and ancient buildings have been unearthed during the construction of a by pass at Grantham in Lincolnshire. The remains date to the the Roman period, from 100AD to perhaps as late as 400AD. They came across thousands of artifacts beneath what will be the Southern Relief Road. These include animal bones (commonly found in farm landscapes), roof tiles (these turn up in most Roman and medieval sites, especially when field walking), an iron sickle (it survived the dreaded rust), a copper spoon handle, brooches (usually broken when found), and 400 Roman coins (also a common find by metal detectors), but the big news is they also found stone walls going back nearly 2000
A grave contained the remains of several adults but the remains of eight new born babies were buried under the floors and foundations of buildings, another common occurrence at Roman period sites. A well preserved pottery kiln has also been found, and several furnace floors or oven bases. The settlement was therefore producing its own pottery, again, not unusual, especially at a settlement on a major route like this one.
Over at https://phys.org/news/2020-09-ancient-hunters-frozen-northern-europe.html … hunters were still living on the northern European Plain during the Late Glacial Maximum – or at least, 27,500 years ago. The site is in southern Poland, which was probably some way south of the actual ice sheet. They are thought to have been seasonal hunters, seeking out arctic fox in the dead of winter. Presumably they lived elsewhere and hunted the animals for their fur. They may have eaten the flesh as well, rather than waste it. Cooked of course. What we have are two sites. One of them is full of mammoth, and not a lot is said of this, and the other was primarily the remains of arctic fox, which displayed signs of butchery, we are assured. One can't imagine a large number of arctic foxes being overcome in a catastrophic event, their bones piled into a heap. In all likelihood this particular site is a human hunting one, used to skin and process the animals. The mammoth bones were locted 30m distant, not a great way from the foxes. The assumption here is that Palaeolithic people hunted mammoth – in great numbers.