__NOTOC__ The Hoxnian Stage was a middle

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

stage of the geological history of the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

. It was an

interglacial An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial, interglaciation) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene i ...

which preceded the Wolstonian Stage and followed the

Anglian Stage The Anglian Stage is the name used in the British Isles for a middle Pleistocene glaciation. It precedes the Hoxnian Stage and follows the Cromerian Stage in the British Isles. It correlates to Marine Isotope Stage 12 (MIS 12), which started ab ...

. It is equivalent to Marine Isotope Stage 11 (MIS 11). Marine Isotope Stage 11 started 424,000 years ago and ended 374,000 years ago. Lisiecki, L. E. (2005)
Ages of MIS boundaries.
http://www.lorraine-lisiecki.com/stack.html LR04 Benthic Stack] Boston University, Boston, MA The Hoxnian is divided into sub-stages Ho I to Ho IV. It is likely equivalent to the Holstein Interglacial in Central Europe.

History

The Hoxnian Stage is named after Hoxne in the English county of

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

where some of the deposits created were first found. It was identified and dated with

palynology Palynology is the study of microorganisms and microscopic fragments of mega-organisms that are composed of acid-resistant organic material and occur in sediments, sedimentary rocks, and even some metasedimentary rocks. Palynomorphs are the mic ...

or pollen evidence in the biostratigraphy and later updated with aminostratigraphic techniques. Based on stratigraphic information the Hoxnian happened after the Anglian glacial as Anglian soil is frequently found underneath Hoxnian deposits.

Similarly timed interglacials

The Hoxnian stage has often been correlated to the Holstein Interglacial of northern Continental Europe and the Mindel-Riss Interglacial of the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

. However, there is ambiguity regarding the correlation of these two interglacials to either MIS 11 or MIS 9, which is related to the MIS 12 / MIS 10 ambiguity described in more detail in the article ' Elster glaciation'. Recent luminenscence The Hoxnian stage has also been equated to the Yarmouthian (Yarmouth) Stage in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. However, the Yarmouthian Stage, along with the Kansan, Nebraskan, and Aftonian stages, have been abandoned by North American Quaternary geologists and merged into the Pre-Illinoian Stage. At this time, the Hoxnian and Holstein stages are correlated with a brief part of the Pre-Illinoian Stage lying between the Pre-Illinoian A and Pre-Illinoian B glaciations of North America.

Humans

During the Hoxnian human activity was constrained by the dense forests so humans travelled along rivers and created settlements in valleys. The Beeches Pit site revealed humans possibly selected sites rich with flint for toolmaking.

Environment

The Hoxnian is an interglacial phase meaning the warm periods in between glacial periods. Interglacial phases are heavily vegetated with woodlands interspersed with open areas. Site deposits are often found over Anglian soil which dates to MIS 12. Most sites have been found in valleys with signs of river deposits. During the interglacial the valleys would have been surrounded by dense forests.

Hoxnian sites

Beeches Pit, West Stow, Suffolk is a site dated to MIS 11 and under 40 km from other sites for the Lower Paleolithic and Middle Paleolithic. Beeches Pit is considered a site of special interest because not only were shells and plant remains found but animal bones that were burnt. The sites around Hitchin, Hertfordshire are associated with lakes caused by the melting of glaciers that settled in holes. When archaeologists dug up the sites they found dense soil full of gravel. The gravel is hypothesized to come from the creation of hand axes. At Marks Tey, Essex the lake soil was rich with pollen spanning all of the Hoxnian and remnants of gravel and artefacts.

References

External links

* * * * *{{cite journal , last1=Roy , first1=M. , first2=P.U. , last2=Clark , first3=R.W. , last3=Barendregt , first4=J.R. , last4=Glasmann , first5=R.J. , last5=Enkin , title=Glacial stratigraphy and paleomagnetism of late Cenozoic deposits of the north-central United States , journal=Geological Society of America Bulletin , volume=116 , issue=1–2 , pages=30–41 , year=2004 , doi=10.1130/B25325.1 , url=http://geo.oregonstate.edu/files/geo/Royetal-GSAB-2004.pdf , format=PDF 1.2 MB , bibcode=2004GSAB..116...30R , access-date=2010-03-20 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180928051015/http://geo.oregonstate.edu/files/geo/Royetal-GSAB-2004.pdf , archive-date=2018-09-28 , url-status=dead Pleistocene Interglacials