Axe ages British man by 200,000 years
Submitted by vicky on Wednesday, 19 November 2003 Page Views: 2645
DiscoveriesCountry: England County: NorfolkInternal Links:
The oldest man-made object found in Britain has been unearthed in Norfolk, offering dramatic new evidence that the history of mankind in northwest Europe began up to 200,000 years earlier than previously thought.
A stone axe unearthed along the coast by a man walking his dog is thought to date from 700,000 years ago. Experts at the British Museum say that it could revolutionise our understanding of our ancient origins.While further research is now taking place at the Norfolk site, the axe is to be displayed next week at the British Museum, in an ambitious exhibition on British archaeology.
The spectacular helmet from the 7th-century ship burial at Sutton Hoo and Roman gold are among 2,000 unique exhibits, but J. D. Hill, the museum’s curator of prehistory in Europe, hailed the axe as “the most important object in the whole exhibition”. He said: “If it is 700,000 years old, it really does put back the history of Europe by an extra 200,000 years. There are stunning objects in the exhibition, but this apparently insignificant piece is the most important thing.”
It was found on the coast between Yarmouth and Cromer by Mike Chambers, 58, who works for the Norfolk Constabulary. He has been beachcombing as a hobby for more than ten years, and has found items as diverse as fossils and a Spitfire Merlin engine. He found the axe in the clay at low tide, some 10ft down from a 30ft cliff.
The axe — roughly the size and shape of a fist and worked into a point to be used as a blade — was still sharp. It is thought to have been a multipurpose tool for butchering a rhinoceros, a lion or another animal encountered in Britain at that time. It adds dramatically to research in East Anglia and an analysis of bones found in a Somerset quarry which, as The Times reported last year, showed that human beings had inhabited Britain for as much as 200,000 years longer than was previously thought.
Now experts are trying to date the axe by examining the strata in the cliff. Dr Hill said: “The reason it’s so crisp and sharp is that it was not rolling round on the beach or the sea. It had fallen out of the cliff face.”
The owner of the axe is thought to have been related to Boxgrove Man, of the species Homo heidelbergensis, whose remains were found at Boxgrove in West Sussex in 1993.
Jill Cook, the British Museum curator of the Old Stone Age, said: “Boxgrove humans were about the same height as us. They were quite robust, with large teeth, so their faces would have been more massive. They were more heavily set than us. They probably used skin clothing, but wouldn’t necessarily have needed to, as they were probably quite hardy.”
Mr Chambers has given the axe to the Norwich Castle Museum, which is lending it to the British Museum. The exhibition, Buried Treasure: Finding Our Past, a collaboration with museums in Cardiff, Manchester, Newcastle and Norwich, runs from November 21 until March 14, before touring the country.
It will reflect how chance archaeological discoveries have transformed our understanding of the past. Most of the finds were uncovered using metal detectors. Exhibits will include the Iron Age gold jewellery found in Winchester and the Bronze Age gold cup from Ringlemere, Kent.
Source: The Times 19/11/2003
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