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Jackpot !

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  • Jackpot !

    As you will know, I have been putting in some effort searching areas that hold Upper Paleolithic material. Most of what can be found comprises crude flakes and levallois flake tools. I was very lucky earlier in the year to find a 'bifacially flaked' spear point. Meanwhile it had been back to crude scrapers, knives and blades. But perseverance is the key to success in our game and yesterday it was my turn for a real prize winner.

    Biface core tools from the Upper Paleolithic are exceptionally rare in the UK.... mostly because we were covered in ice throughout the period of Mousterian Technology. You only have to search through the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) database to see how many (none) there are; or a Google images search. It is one of those objects that is so rare you stand a better chance of winning the lottery )

    Yesterday I found one !

    The beauty of these small hand axes is unquestionable. It is in near perfect condition, with one tiny plough dink, with a sharp edge (not mint). The shape is cordate with what appears to be some contemporary sharpening, which has reduced the tip producing a slight 'waist' or narrowing of the cordate form. The side profile is the twisted 'S' shape that you see on many hand axes; in fact it looks like a miniaturised Acheulian hand axe.

    I have never held one of these axes before and I am totally in love with it.... happy days





  • #2
    congrats on the nice find

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    • #3
      Very nice! Congratulations!! Can you identify the flint/chert? Is the material local to your area?

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Driftwood View Post
        Very nice! Congratulations!! Can you identify the flint/chert? Is the material local to your area?
        This area of England is right on the chalk, so abundant natural flint all over the fields. The area is part of the 'South Downs', which is a chalk ridge.

        The flint from a round here often seems to have a cream coloured patination; which I am guessing was locally acquired. After each ice age freshly eroded flint would have littered the landscape and the melt rivers would have been full of it.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Sunny View Post
          ...in fact it looks like a miniaturised Acheulian hand axe....
          Super find! In fact, it that had been from SW France where such types are moderately plentiful, that’s exactly how it would be attributed… as MTA (Moustérien de tradition Acheuléen).

          British Mousterian bifaces are characterised by substantial resharpening, including bifacial edge resharpening, unifacial working and tranchet techniques (Emery 2010). Often, its resharpening that creates the twisted profile. Metrical comparison between bifaces from flint-rich and flint-poor sites in Britain shows that the latter are significantly smaller, suggesting that they have been heavily re-sharpened while being transported. The curation of these bifaces is further supported by a comparison of biface size and scar number. The smaller the biface, the greater the scar number, whereas at flint-rich sites the general trend is for scar number to correlate positively with size. One of the burning questions is whether the distinctive shape of bifaces (and notably the bout-coupé axe-form) from the British equivalent of the French MTA was present from initial manufacture or is no more than a by-product of maintenance, arising from resharpening during curation (Wragg Sykes 2010). If it were the former, it would justify adding a third Mousterian industry cultural tradition to the two which already exist… that is a third distinct sub-population within the Neanderthals.

          Incidentally, just to qualify what you said… Mousterian technology stretches all the way back to the Lower Palaeolithic, so we weren’t “covered in ice throughout the period of Mousterian Technology”… only covered in it (without respite) during the Middle to Early Upper Palaeolithic. The climate warmed up in southern Britain between 130,000 and 110,000 years ago, but our early occupants who had been forced south and then out of Britain altogether by the previous glaciation 200,000 years ago couldn't get back and no-one else could arrive. The temporary thaw (one of several subsequent interglacials of various durations and extent) raised the sea level in the English Channel sufficiently to make us an island again. We know that Neanderthals were living in northern France at the time but they could no longer walk across a land bridge to get here.

          Until recently, it was believed that Neanderthal repopulation of Britain (although limited) didn’t begin until around 60,000 years ago and lasted to about 42,000 years ago... from the Middle Palaeolithic only just into the Upper Palaeolithic. Our thinking needs to be revised following the 2010 discovery by Dr Francis Wenban-Smith from the University of Southampton. He found Neanderthal-related waste flakes in sediments dated to about 100,000 years ago (when Britain was believed to be uninhabited) at the M25/A2 motorway junction in Kent. We have a lot more to learn and probably there are now-submerged sites (perhaps Doggerland and submerged coastal areas of the Channel Islands) which have a lot more to tell us about the true extent of Neanderthal presence in various time frames.
          I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.

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          • Sunny
            Sunny commented
            Editing a comment
            Thanks Rog, great information as usual.

            I will be showing it to Francis (Wenban-Smith) at some point; I catch up with him a couple of times a year to go over my finds. It will be interesting to hear what he thinks of this piece and the some of the other blades I found in the same area.

            It is an extremely rich' fresh flint' area and was chosen as an adze factory zone during the Mesolithic (so the thinking has evolved).

        • #6
          An extremely rare find. Im happy for your good luck and perseverance.

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          • #7
            Way out of my league. thank you for sharing.



            Look to the ground for it holds the past!

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