Flint Handaxe

[morgancanoe]

I found this stone handaxe on the banks of the Thames River in the UK- I think it looks good- anyone have thoughts on this piece? Any comments appreciated!

[painshill]

Hi Rob and welcome to the forum.
Were you visiting us in the UK when you found it?
It does indeed look like a typical crude biface chopper from the Lower Palaeolithic. "Axe" isn't really the right term (whether hafted or not). Tools like that were used for primary butchery of large carcases, in the manner of a cleaver and also for general purpose brute-force tasks like busting open bones to get at the marrow.
It's difficult to put a date to it with any precision without knowing the settlement age for its original stratigraphy. Palaeolithic evidence in the London region is extensive compared to other parts of Britain, dating back as far as about 450,000 years ago and is specifically associated with the (former course of) the Thames valley. But most of the tools found along the modern course of the Thames have arisen from large-scale gravel extraction in the 19th century when the Thames was extensively dredged and so are generally out of their archaeological context. It's probably a couple of hundred thousand years old at minimum and not likely to be older than about 400,000 years.
Well spotted!

[OnewiththewilD]

hello from "new" england.i really enjoy seeing you's guy's old world artifacts.thanks fer the look.

[chase]

Nothing like hunting the other side of the pond. Neat artifact!
Thanks Roger for the insight on the artifact. Curious as to what the lithic is?

[morgancanoe]

Appears to be a flint/chert matrix similar to some French paleo choppers that have been found

[rmartin]

Now that is cool! Thanks for sharing.