Mammoth-hunters turn back date of first Britons by 100,000 years

A MYSTERIOUS race of ancient Britons who had much in common with modern people but belonged to another human species lived in Norfolk almost a million years ago, scientists believe.

Examples of their stone tools were found close to the seashore at Happisburgh, near the Norfolk Broads, where coastal erosion has exposed fossils.

Evidence suggests they were hunting mammoth and deer and hiding from sabre-toothed cats in the area more than 800,000 years ago, making them the oldest known human settlers in northern Europe.

The find pushes back the date when humans were known to have first occupied Britain by at least 100,000 years. No bones of the tool-makers have yet been discovered, but scientists say they may have been related to a species called Homo antecessor (pioneer man) that lived in southern Europe at the same time - when Britain was connected to the rest of Europe by a land bridge.

They were not ancestors of people living today, but are a "dead end" branch of the human evolutionary tree. Yet scientists believe they looked similar to modern humans, and probably wore animal-skin clothes and built shelters. They might even have known how to master fire.

Professor Chris Stringer, one of the scientists who reported the discovery yesterday in the journal Nature, said: "This was a species that was fairly human in terms of walking upright; these were not ape-men. They had quite big brains and were relatively advanced humans."

More than 70 flint tools, including large "flakes" with sharp cutting edges, were found at the site. Clues to their age came from the fossil bones of animals found nearby, including a type of mammoth that became extinct 800,000 years ago.