This has to be one of the most exciting finds I have had. The plough (plow) had shattered this handaxe and when I found the first piece I wasn’t convinced it was worked. I took a gamble and settled down to work through the soil and after two hours of digging and feeling through each piece of clay by hand I had amassed the parts you see in the photos; although at that stage I still wasn’t sure I had the entire artefact. At best I thought I had a partial axe.
It wasn’t until I began to wash the bigger bits (with my reading glasses on !) that I knew for sure that it was worked and even when the whole lot lay on a towel drying I considered there was too little there to make anything near a complete axe. Cellotaping the many fragments together it slowly took shape and although I am still missing some pieces I am bloody pleased with the outcome. I beautiful Lower Palaeolithic ovate biface.... made by a species of hominid that roamed the earth hundreds of thousands of years ago, when Britain was populated with rhino, elephant and lions...awesome :0)
The next stage was to glue it, which is where I managed to get to so far. But before I start to fill the cracks with a colour matched flexible filler I intend to return to the field and try for those pieces still missing
It wasn’t until I began to wash the bigger bits (with my reading glasses on !) that I knew for sure that it was worked and even when the whole lot lay on a towel drying I considered there was too little there to make anything near a complete axe. Cellotaping the many fragments together it slowly took shape and although I am still missing some pieces I am bloody pleased with the outcome. I beautiful Lower Palaeolithic ovate biface.... made by a species of hominid that roamed the earth hundreds of thousands of years ago, when Britain was populated with rhino, elephant and lions...awesome :0)
The next stage was to glue it, which is where I managed to get to so far. But before I start to fill the cracks with a colour matched flexible filler I intend to return to the field and try for those pieces still missing
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