Middle Palaeolithic handaxe, North Sea (1)

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Aaron Chidgey uncovered the handaxe Hanson_0936_001 in aggregates from Licence Area 240, a dredging region on the East Coast of the North Sea, approximately 10 km south-east of Great Yarmouth. Phil Harding examined it after its discovery at Dagenham Wharf. The Middle Palaeolithic artefact is a cordiform handaxe with damage most likely caused by extraction process, but this damage reveals the grey mottled flint from which it was made, otherwise hidden beneath a yellow-brown surface stain. Both sides display limited numbers of well-struck blows used to thin and shape the flint, resulting in relatively thin edges prone to edge damage, as evident on this example. This find was part of an assemblage consisting of 30 flint artefacts and 111 fragments of animal bones, all reported through the Marine Aggregate Industry Protocol for the Reporting of Finds of Archaeological Interest.