A trove of around 800 stone tools, including what archaeologists have described as “giant hand axes”, has been discovered during a dig in Kent, England, shedding light on a time when Neanderthals were beginning to emerge in Britain. Researchers have surprisingly found a Roman cemetery dating hundreds of thousands of years later at the same site.
Letty Ingrey, a senior archaeologist at University College London’s Institute of Archeology, described the stone tools as being so big it’s hard to imagine them being held and used, according to a statement from press. The results were released on Thursday In Internet Archeology.
“Perhaps they served a less practical or more symbolic function than other tools, a clear demonstration of strength and skill,” Ingrey said. “Although at this time we don’t know why such large tools were made, or what species of early humans made them, this site offers a chance to answer these exciting questions.”
An archaeologist points to one of the hand axes at the onsite discovery point. Photo courtesy of University College London
Excavations began in spring 2021 after British construction firm Bowmer + Kirkland, which was building a new school called the Maritime Academycommissioned an archaeological assessment as part of the construction process.
The researchers found the stone tools in a body of sediment thought to have been deposited by a tributary of the River Medway during the Middle Pleistocene era. Among the finds, which measure around 8.6 to 11.4 inches in length, was a flint cutting tool believed to be the third largest ever found in Britain.
“The size of the hand ax and its distinctive symmetrical elongated tapered tip are typical of a type of hand ax known as a ficron,” the researchers said in a description of a 3D model of the artifact. “Similar tools are known from the Medway Valley and southern Britain.”
Location of the Palaeolithic site of the Académie maritime. The upper left corner indicates the location of the site in the expanded region. Top right, the position of the site in relation to the current course of the Medway and the Paleolithic sites of Cuxton and Frindsbury All Saints. The bottom image shows a site plan including the geoarchaeological surveys and attenuation zones discussed in the text. Image courtesy of Internet Archeology
Viewers of the 3D model can click and drag to rotate the massive ficron and see how its creators carved the stone into a tool. The tool is nearly a foot long and weighs over three and a half pounds.
In the journal article, the study authors called these handaxes “among the most impressive and arresting objects in our Middle Pleistocene records.” Although the researchers said they don’t know why such large bifaces were made, they believe such tools could have been used for slaughtering meat.
“The Maritime Academy excavations have given us an incredibly valuable opportunity to study how an entire Ice Age landscape developed over a quarter of a million years ago,” said Matt Pope of the UCL Institute of Archeology in a press release.
“A program of scientific analysis, involving specialists from UCL and other UK institutions, will now help us understand why the site was important to ancient people and how stone artefacts, including ‘giant axes’ , helped them adapt to the challenges of Ice Age environments.
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