The plot thickens: new study reveals complex identity of ancient Britons

Do bones and teeth found in Sussex share characteristics with Neanderthal fossils from northern Spain?

They are the oldest human fossils ever found on British soil. Excavated 30 years ago at Boxgrove, in West Sussex, the leg bone and teeth of an early human species were subsequently dated as being around 480,000 years old.

Other finds made at Boxgrove also revealed these ancient men and women were hunting horses, deer and perhaps even rhinos and butchering them. Crucially, they were doing so with sophisticated stone tools long before the appearance of Homo sapiens - though the exact identity of these individuals remained a puzzle.