The UK is rich in history, rich in geology. There are ‘historical’ UNESCO World Heritage Sites such as Stonehenge and Avebury and ‘natural’ World Heritage Sites such as the Jurassic Coast in Dorset and Devon. You travel around and it’s all highly visble.
What isn’t visible, but for some even more remarkable, is the story of humans and other animals in the UK. I was reading an information board down in Devon the other day which stated that elephants and rhino used to bumble around the east coast.
And then there are the humans. This week, there have been news stories about an archaeological dig which provided evidence that a human ancestor, the Neanderthal, was alive and well in West Sussex some 40,000 years ago. Apparently, amongst the last hunting groups to occupy Northern Europe. In the same county, West Sussex, there’s the more famous ‘Boxgrove Man’, another human ancestor, who lived here around 500,000 years ago. When you visit the superb priory at Boxgrove it’s awesome to think that humans have been living there, on and off as they dodged ice ages, for such a vast amount of time.
The aim of picturetheuk is to reveal the UK to people through pictures (made from photos, videos, words, art etc) and perhaps we need to think of ways to bring this hidden past out as well.
Boxgrove Priory: http://www.picturetheuk.com/uk-tourism/attraction/boxgrove-priory-1037.html