...the oldest level is exceptional. Dated to at least 300 000 years, it belongs to the Palaeolithic, Acheulian culture. The flint tools found at this level were shaped either by the last Homo heidelbergensis or by early Neanderthals.
Posted on 07/17/2012 8:15:24 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The deposits at Etricourt Manancourt in the Picardie region of France documents the history of early European settlements, revealing at least five prehistoric levels, ranging between 300,000 and 80,000 years old...
Archaeologists from Inrap looked at 17 hectares in 2010, which revealed a Palaeolithic level and more evidence was found in 2012, when 3,200 square metres were excavated over 4 month period.
The most recent occupation comes from the Middle Paleolithic (80,000 years old) and belongs to the Neanderthals. Twenty sites of this period are already known in northern France.
The next two levels are also Neanderthal and belong to the early phase of the Middle Paleolithic during an interglacial period -- the Saalian -- between 190,000 and 240,000 years old. The discoveries of sites from this period are rare and, in the north of France, only excavations in 1999 (around Beauvais) and Biache St. Vaast in 1976 (Pas-de-Calais) have produced such well preserved contemporary deposits...
Seven metres deep, the excavation revealed three major climatic cycles through successive glacial and interglacial periods (the Holsteinian the Saalian and Weichselian).
The contents of the 300,000 year layer are perfectly preserved in moist soil conditions and has produced so far several hundred flints including the biface...
The organic remains (bones and wood) have unfortunately not been preserved due to soil acidity. However, the distribution of remains and lithic studies will provide key elements to reconstruct the behaviour and lifestyle of these early Europeans.
(Excerpt) Read more at pasthorizonspr.com ...
...the oldest level is exceptional. Dated to at least 300 000 years, it belongs to the Palaeolithic, Acheulian culture. The flint tools found at this level were shaped either by the last Homo heidelbergensis or by early Neanderthals.
Incredible to think that hand axe is 300,000 years old!
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Acheulian sounds a little like someone sneezing. |
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Nice they stretch to the alpha as we approach omega. But I guess what goes around...
Why not 299,980 years 8 months?. .. I suspect counting time in this way is suspect..
I don’t believe it.. Its like a show, an act, a performance..
A story a Yarn... made up to inspire the non creative mind..
They are not mentioning white flag.
Talk about survival skills try to survive and hunt in the woods with just a sharp rock. Makes most survivalists look like wimps. Lions, tigers, wolves and bears all around and the closest gun is roughly 300,000 years away.
What’s so cool about that?...North Americans had tools like that 300 years ago
Good find. Thanks!
Considering this was France, did they also find a 300,000 year old white flag?
did they also find a 300,000 year old white flag?
The axe was wrapped up in one.
If it’s a Craftsman™ and you take into any Sears...
i bet the cheese smelled just as bad back then
Was that tool used for digging for truffles?
“...that hand axe is 300,000 years old!”
If it’s verified to be that old then how “prehistoric” can it be?
I question the dating on some of these finds. Even anchient man knew that the heat treating of flint changed it’s fracturing characteristicts. Those of us that flint knap quite often heat treat lower grades of flint, a process that takes days to do. Some us kilns, ovens and my favorite for Texas flints a turkey roaster. You start off at lower heats and bring it up gradualy over a couple of days. Heating up to fast cayse the moisture in the stone to expand faster than it can escape and shatter the stone. Anchient man used a simple method of digging a hole and laying the bifaces ofr pieces of flint at the bottom, covering with an inch or two of dirt and then build a fire on top of it. While not as effective as newer methods it still works pretty well.
I’ve dug out several firepits here on the ranch and it’s not uncommon to find larger peices of flint and bifaces layered at the bottom, some as far down as a foot or more. It’s that foot or more that leads to my questioning the dates.
Extremely prehistoric.
If human beings were indeed making and using hand tools 300,000 years ago then I think it’s fair to say that the historic timeline of hand tools goes that far back. Therefore, the term “prehistoric” is not necessarily applicable and since we are talking about beings who developed tool design, fabrication and usage skills then we must also be talking about a historic timeline of people that also goes that far back.
Anything unmeasureable before the Big Bang could be thought of as being prehistoric. But what if there WAS something measureable before the Big Bang?
I bet they didn’t find deodorant. Or soap.
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