It has happened again. Twice. Or possibly three times. Just when you think we know all about European archaeology some discovery opens a new perspective.

First was the finding of faint, but convincing, engravings of animals on the walls of caves at the Creswell Crags on the Notts/Derby border.   Britain's first Ice Age cave art.  The creatures had not been seen before, despite innumerable visits by archaeologists who had excavated in the caves and had even defined one period of the British Paleolithic about 13,000 years ago as the "Creswellian" period. It took a very careful look by the experienced eyes of Paul Bahn, Paul Pettitt and colleagues from Spain to make them out, together with the realisation that in many cases the artist had adopted a fairly minimalist approach, merely adding a few engraved details when the natural form of the rock wall suggested an animal head.

Second, according to The Independent of 11/06/05, Europe's first monument-building civilisation was up and running in a zone from eastern Germany to Slovakia in the early Neolithic between 4800 and 4600 BC. These people, who had just mastered pastoralism, were building giant circular structures of earth and wood, typically comprising a central space defined by a palisade, surrounded by multiple earthen banks and ditches. Over 150 such sites have been identified, with notable excavations at Nickern in Dresden and Aythra near Leipiz. Their purpose does not appear to be defensive, rather ritual, defining a sacred space.  The people themselves lived in villages made up of large, communal dwellings. The problem in recognising them had been the very scanty remains left, often only post holes.

Finally, it is said that items of Roman military equipment found around Fishbourne Palace are types that were long obsolete by the time of the Claudian invasion. Therefore, there may have been a substantial Roman bridgehead in Sussex with a friendly tribe and client king up to 50 years before the "invasion" of 43AD; Perhaps. The great thing about archaeology is that it never ceases to provide new material for debate.