Posted on 12/17/2004 11:37:14 AM PST by blam
ARCHAEOLOGISTS EXCITED BY 500,000-YEAR-OLD AXE FIND IN QUARRY
By David Prudames 16/12/2004
This image shows the axe head from different angles. Photo: Graham Norrie, University of Birmingham Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity.
A Stone Age hand axe dating back 500,000 years has been discovered at a quarry in Warwickshire.
The tool was found at the Smiths Concrete Bubbenhall Quarry at Waverley Wood Farm, near Coventry, which has already produced evidence of some of the earliest known human occupants of the UK.
It was uncovered in gravel by quarry manager John Green who took it to be identified by archaeologists at the University of Birmingham.
"We are very excited about this discovery," enthused Professor David Keen of the university's Archaeology Field Unit.
"Lower Palaeolithic artefacts are comparatively rare in the West Midlands compared to the south and east of England so this is a real find for us."
Despite being half and million years old the tool is very well-preserved and will eventually go on show at Warwickshire Museum.
Amongst other things, the hand axe would have been used for butchering animals, but what is perhaps most intriguing about it is that it is made of a type of volcanic rock called andesite.
Photo: Graham Norrie, University of Birmingham Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity.,
Andesite bedrock only occurs in the Lake District or North Wales and this is only the ninth andesite hand axe to be found in the midlands in over a century. Archaeologists are now trying to figure out how the tool might have got there.
Although it is possible the rock was transported to the midlands by glacial ice from the north west there is as yet no evidence for it, which suggests humans might have brought it into the area.
The lack of material for good quality hand axes in the midlands would probably have been known to our ancestors, therefore these tools could have been brought in ready made.
It may also be significant that all previous andesite hand axe finds have been made in deposits of the Bytham River, a now lost river system that crossed England from the Cotswolds via the West Midlands and Leicester to the North Sea.
This valley was destroyed in a later glaciation and seems to have provided a route into the midlands for Palaeolithic hunters.
Half a million years ago the area was at the edge of the human world, linked to Europe along the Bytham valley and across a land-bridge existing before the cutting of the Straits of Dover.
In addition to the hand axe the Smiths Concrete Bubbenhall Quarry has produced 18 other Palaeolithic tools, currently under investigation by the team at Birmingham Archaeology.
Other finds in the area include bones and teeth from a straight-tusked elephant, which are also set to be displayed at Warwickshire Museum.
Maybe from the strat in which it was found, ant other or ganic "stuff".
And quit calling me shirley! </airplane reference
If I drill a 500-foot deep hole, keep track of the material that comes out, place a cell phone in the hole and replace the dirt in reverse order...
Will the cell phone be dated to 200,000,000 BC when it's found?
Just wondering...
It was dated by a contemporaneous voicemail Dan Rather located regarding the date of manufacture.
Plus, it had the ingraving "To F.F. from W.F. Love! 500,000 B.C." on one side.
Seriously, I believe the dating came from its position in relation to the now non-existant river system that had been previously dated.
Now where did I put that ax?!
Lol!
More modern North American celts / axes are found on the web site below ae made in a combination of ways, most made entirely or finished by a pecking and grinding method as opposed to just being made exclusively via percussion- but it's interesting and informative:
I promise to proofread better in the future!
Trade and commerce are as old as the human race. It's in our nature. That's why all efforts to significantly limit trade fail.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
And percussion flaking andesite is not easy as most posters on here seem to think. I could probably bang a similar one out in 30-60 minutes, given the right hammer stone, but most people wouldn't have a clue how to even start.
Dating is done usually by dating organic material found with a site. If you find flint tools next to a butchered animal carcass, for example, you can do isochron dating on the carcass to date it, and thusly the tools by association. Since most tools from a given era look similar, you can date other tools from the originals, given that all of the tools are found in the same geographic area.
GOOD ONE!
Thanks for ping to M2C's hilarity.
Amazingly, they also found some more votes for Digregoire.
That Barney Rubble probably borrowed it ya know, some 496,992 years ago.
Nobody ever forgets where they buried the hatchet.
LOLOL! Very good.
"Smiths Concrete Bubbenhall Quarry, Est. 500,000 years BC"
It's not usually hard to see the outlines of past soil disturbances at archaeological sites. In Indian mounds a cross section even reveals the individual basket loads of earth with remarkable clarity. Old fire pits alter the color and other characteristics of soils as well, burnt posts leave their own distinct marks, layers of burnt thatch still others, groundhog and other rodent tunnels show themselves clearly, trash pits are distinguishable, cooking pits leave the soil with a peculiar odor and greasiness even after hundreds of years or more, rotted wood also changes soil color in the space it occupied long af the wood is gone, etc. No matter how careful you are you cannot replace what has been dug out perfectly and maintain all the different factors to hide what you did.
Also, how reasonable is it to think that someone made an axe or found a more recent one and decided to risk losing that hard work or losing that artifact- surely even a more recent one has some value- for the sake of a prank? How reasonable is it to assume someone randomly chose a spot in the ground in which to set up a trick in the hopes there would be an archaeological dig there some day, and some archaeologists would come along and just happen to pick the vary same spot to dig, and just happen to dig to the very same same depth, and just happen to find what the prankster left and not be deterred by the lack of other finds or clues yet keep digging to the neccessary level, and not be curious that nothing else was found there but an odd, long backfilled hole containing the axe? In this theory that it could be planted, did the prankster have the foresight to decide to play the trick a thousand years ago, a hundred years ago, or the day before the archaeologists started to dig? For what reason would anyone go through the trouble? You can have more fun with archaeologists if you just get them drunk.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.