Miss Layard Excavates: the Palaeolithic site at Foxhall Road, Ipswich, 1903-1905

Between 1903 and 1905 Miss Nina Frances Layard conducted exemplary excavations of an outstanding Palaeolithic site on plateau gravels above Ipswich. Here, Palaeolithic humans gathered around the edges of an erstwhile lake and/or river, leaving behind stone tools and manufacturing waste. Many remarkable pictures emerge from this book: of the excavator, an Edwardian lady of great determination and skill; of the site itself, which might well have been on a par with Boxgrove had it been discovered today; of the piecing together of Miss Layard's lost archive by Steven Plunkett; of the meeting of two enthusiasts and their decision to write this book - and last but by no means least - of the remarkable archaeological evidence. The authors have assembled a jigsaw of magnificent proportions: their detective work has enabled them to return a neglected but truly significant site to its rightful place in the canon of British Palaeolithic archaeology.Table of Contents'Too early for its own archaeological good': Foxhall Road 1902-2002; Nina Frances Layard (1853-1935): a short biography of an archaeologist; An account of the Ipswich palaeolithic discovery of 1902; Palaeolithic archaeology in 1902: Foxhall Road in context; Two winters' work at the Ipswich palaeolithic site: the excavations of 1903-1904 and 1904-1905; The geology of Foxhall Road and the surrounding area; The artefacts from Miss Layard's excavation; Further excavations at the Ipswich palaeolithic site: the investigations and collections of Reginald Smith and James Reid Moir; Summary and discussion: reconstructing the distant past from the recent past; Appendices; Bibliography.