# Earliest known human presence at Happisburgh (-800000)

URL: https://english-history.com/timeline/-800000-earliest-known-human-presence-at-happisburgh
Categories: main-event

Stone tools and footprints from the Norfolk coast provide some of the earliest evidence for humans in northern Europe. Within the broader Prehistoric Britain period, communities moved from hunter-gatherer lifeways toward farming, monument building, metalworking and increasingly complex regional societies. This event is placed at c. 800,000 BCE in the chronology so it can be read alongside the political, military, social and cultural changes around it. The finds push the story of human occupation in Britain far deeper into the Pleistocene than older histories assumed.

## Why it matters
The finds push the story of human occupation in Britain far deeper into the Pleistocene than older histories assumed.

Ruler at the time: [Prehistoric Britain](https://english-history.com/rulers/prehistoric-britain)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia topic lookup — Earliest known human presence at Happisburgh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=Earliest+known+human+presence+at+Happisburgh&go=Go)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica topic lookup — Earliest known human presence at Happisburgh](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Earliest+known+human+presence+at+Happisburgh)
- [Wikipedia — Timeline of British history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_British_history_%28before_1000%29)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — prehistoric Britain topic search](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=prehistoric%20Britain)