Beautiful English Palaeolithic Handaxe -Thames Gravels 

A piece of Iconic Ancient Art.

During the inter glacial periods 450,000 to 250,000 years ago, our distant cousins Homo Heidelbergensis and Neanderthal were visiting and habitating Southern England.  

Our ancestors were using "Handaxes" or "Bifaces, two faced axes". These simple tools were skillfully crafted from the available stone around them, Southern England has the availability of good quality flint. With Flint, it has the advantage of when being knapped being extremely sharp and with skill, shaped to a desired form. A handaxe was their Swiss army knife of their time, a multi tool used for everything from hunting, cutting and digging.

This handaxe made all that time ago has the very very desired "Cordiform" shape and the most beautiful glassy, colourful patina.  Signs of use in antiquity with the area of the tip being slightly concave, this is not modern damage and forms part of the handaxe. Potentially this came from cutting up part of their Woolly Mammoth or Woolly Rhino!

The colourful patina comes from the original flint soaking up the minerals from its surroundings for hundreds of thousands of years. 

Not only does the patina make this piece so pretty,  it also helps you to be certain it is authentic and not a modern replica. A patina can only form over a vast amount of time. 

Within the flint, there are the remains of fossil sponges and other sea creatures which were formed millions of years ago from the silica build up. There is a patch were the the fossil has turned to a crystal form and sparkles. 

Stand included with purchase.

Length 13cm

Width 7.8cm

Weight 369g

Further photos are available of request.

Please note that at this time, UK buyers only.