What Was This Massive, Record-Setting Stone Tool Used For?

Archaeologists are working now to answer this question and shed some light on early human life in southern England.

By Matt Hrodey
Jul 10, 2023 8:00 PMJul 10, 2023 7:59 PM
Giant hand axe
The largest hand axe recovered from the Maritime Academy site. (Credit: Archaeology South-East/UCL)

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In 2021, a team of archaeologists led by the University College of London (UCL) Institute of Archaeology dug deep trenches into the gravelly soil of a site southeast of London. Their routine job was to check the land before workers built the Maritime Academy secondary school, but the work became more and more exciting as they excavated.

From the 3-meter-deep trenches, they collected some 800 different stone artifacts thought to be over 300,000 years old so old that they couldn’t say for sure which early human species had used them. At that point in time, Neanderthals were spreading throughout present-day England, and other species may have joined them, the new paper says.

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