A letter from Professor Martin K Jones of Cambridge challenges the claim that the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles is the “only urban, active ice age excavation site in the world.”
Global Excavations
Jones points to ongoing excavations in cities such as London, Paris, Rome, Istanbul, and Xi’an that continue to reveal new insights into stone age life. He highlights a recent example from Casal Lumbroso in Rome, where the carcass of a straight-tusked elephant was found to have been dismembered using carefully fashioned stone tools.
A Wider Perspective
“The past is all around us, and new discoveries are coming to light in so many localities,” Jones writes, emphasising that urban ice age excavations are more common than often assumed.
This letter responds to an article about the La Brea Tar Pits published on 24 May.
