Professor Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum, and director of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project, said, referring to the sites in East Anglia, "The species of hominid which inhabited the sites remains unknowable without direct fossils. The most likely candidate is an earlier variety of Homo heidelbergensis. It was also possible they were examples of Homo antecessor, a potentially new species found at Atapuerca in Spain and the oldest known European hominid.
Homo heidelbergensis, as known from Boxgrove and continental sites, had a slightly smaller skull than modern man, but was more heavily built, at about 14 stone in weight and 6ft in height. “In my view, it’s a direct ancestor of Homo sapiens,” Professor Stringer said.
It will be interesting to study Neanderthal behaviour. The best expert on Neanderthal behavior is Michael Bradley. www.michaelbradley.info.