24 Hour Museum - official guide to UK museums, galleries, exhibitions and heritage
Gateway to Over 3,000 UK museums, galleries and heritage attractions
Skip to navigation
28 Palaeolithic Hand Axes Recovered From Seabed Off Norfolk
By 24 Hour Museum Staff
10/03/2008
Image: a photo of a hand carved flint hand axe
Carved by the hand of a Neanderthal 100,000 years ago. One of the remarkable hand axes discovered from the bed of the North Sea. © SCEZ
An amazing haul of 28 flint hand-axes, dated by archaeologists as around 100,000 years old, have been recovered off the coast of Norfolk.
The remarkable find was made by a Dutch amateur archaeologist, Jan Meulmeester, who sifted through gravel unearthed from a licensed marine aggregate dredging area 13km off Great Yarmouth and delivered to a wharf in southern Holland.
Reckoned to be the finest hand-axes that experts are certain come from English waters, the rare finds show that deep in the Ice Age, mammoth hunters roamed across land that is now submerged beneath the sea.
“These finds are massively important,” said Ice Age expert Phil Harding of Wessex Archaeology and Channel 4’s Time Team. “In the Ice Age the cold conditions meant that water was locked up in the ice caps. The sea level was lower then, so in some places what is now the seabed was dry land.”
The finds were made in the North Sea - an area of dry land during the Ice Age. © Wessex Archaeology
Bones and teeth, some of which may be from mammoths, and fragments of deer antler were also recovered along with the axes, which archaeologists believe would have been used by hunters in butchering the carcasses of the animals.
The hand-axes date to the Palaeolithic (or Old Stone Age) but exactly when in that 750,000-year time span is yet to be determined. Further study is needed but the shape of the handaxes can be compared with finds up to 100,000 years old, which means these tools were made by Neanderthals, Homo neanderthalensis, not by modern Homo sapiens.
It is very likely that these handaxes were made, used and left behind during a cold period, on land that is now under water. If they are found to have come from soils that have plant remains in them, it will confirm that they were deposited when the area was dry land. Archaeologists have suspected that sites like this exist in the southern North Sea, though until now it could not be proven.
“Although we don’t yet know their precise date,” added Mr Harding, “we can say that these hand-axes are the single most important find of Ice Age material from below the North Sea.”
Image: a photo of a hand carved flint hand axe
Archaeologists believe the axes would have been used by hunters in butchering the carcasses of animals. © SCEZ
As part of a dredging industry protocol signed with English Heritage in 2005, the dredging company Hanson have now moved dredging to another part of the seabed and an exclusion zone has been set up around the area in order to protect any further remains that may be present.
English Heritage is now co-operating with Dutch counterparts, the National Service for Archaeology, Cultural Landscape and Built Heritage to evaluate the finds.
“These are exciting finds which help us gain a greater understanding of The North Sea at a time when it was land,” said Ian Oxley, Head of Maritime Archaeology at English Heritage. “We know people were living out there before Britain became an island, but sites actually proving this are rare.”
E-news registration
E-mail story to a friend
Tell us what you think
Sir Christopher Frayling: 'Unlock Creative Potential Of Collections'
New Their Past Your Future Projects Bring Generations Together
News In Brief - Museums, Galleries And Heritage News
Britain's Roman And Maritime Heritage Sites Get Funding Boost
Winners Of Young Archaeologist Of The Year 2008 Announced
Shock And Gore - Controversial Artwork Opens Brighton Photo Biennial
Archaeologists Discover Roman Coastline - Two Miles Inland
London Photomonth Photography Festival Gets Underway
TV Archaeologist Julian Richards To Give Talk In Norwich
Beamish Museum Acquires Victorian Credit Crunch Watercolours
Friends Of Dulwich Picture Gallery Blog Attracts New Audiences
Horace Walpole's Stawberry Hill House Receives Funding Boost
Glass Artist Wants To Help Fight Cancer With Her Artwork
Stuckists Launch Their Annual Protest Against The Turner Prize At Tate Britain
News In Brief - Week Ending October 5 2008
The Big Draw Launches In London With Free Interactive Festival
TPYF: Dean Heritage Centre Needs WWII Memories For New Exhibition Resource
Damaged Drakelow Urn Returns To Anglesey Abbey
Search this site
Home Page
News Page
Exhibition Page
What's On
Trails Page
Website of the Week
Letters Page
Welsh Home
Graphical Version
Copyright © 24 Hour Museum
Information published here was believed to be correct at the time it was prepared. Welsh language pages developed with CYMAL: Museums Archives and Libraries Wales, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government.