Front garden yields ancient tools (BBC)

eppur_se_muova

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Thu Jun-22-06 09:12 AM
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Front garden yields ancient tools (BBC)

The Britons of 250,000 years ago were a good deal more sophisticated than they are sometimes given credit for, new archaeological evidence suggests.

It comes in the form of giant flint handaxes that have been unearthed at a site at Cuxton in Kent.

The tools display exquisite, almost flamboyant, workmanship not associated with this period until now.

The axes - one of which measured 307mm (1ft) in length - were dug up from old sand deposits in a front garden.

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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5098748.stm

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SteppingRazor

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Thu Jun-22-06 09:16 AM
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1. That's cool and all, but....

isn't it a little bit of a stretch to call this "exquisite, almost flamboyant, workmanship"? :shrug:

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Richard D

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Thu Jun-22-06 09:21 AM
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3. Try making one!

Much more difficult than it looks.

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benburch

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Thu Jun-22-06 09:22 AM
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4. Not a strech.

A much less worked stone axehead achieves about the same results.

And if you have ever tried knaping stone, you'd know what a job of work that one was!

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Celebration

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Thu Jun-22-06 09:20 AM
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2. Conjecture

These were first used as weapons against other humans. This thing looks nasty.

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Warpy

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Thu Jun-22-06 09:30 AM
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5. No, they were hand tools

used for everything from chopping vegetation to butchering animals and cracking bones to extract marrow.

When I look at the picture, I imagine my hand curled around the top, point down, disjointing some meat to get it ready for smoking to preserve it. It really is a beautiful tool.

Weapons were usually tied to the ends of spears or to other handles, thus extending the user's reach. The tops were accordingly shaped.

This is likely a woman's tool, and she must've been devastated when she lost it, along with the others.

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xchrom

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Thu Jun-22-06 10:16 AM
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6. beautiful!

indeed -- a much more simply made object would achieve the same results -- great effort was put into making this by the knapper.

one wonders if the owner was important somehow.

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semillama

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Thu Jun-22-06 12:48 PM
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7. Note that we're probably not talking Homo Sapiens here

these artifacts are way too early for our species to have made them. More likely they are products of Homo Heidelbergensis or even early Neandertal. Which makes them even cooler!

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xchrom

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Thu Jun-22-06 04:16 PM
Response to Reply #7

8. neanderthal created some pretty elaborate burials.

so no reason to think they wouldn't do the same for other things.

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