P023 – Palaeolithic / Mousterian – Scraper / Hooked Knife (British Find)


Palaeolithic Stone Tools

The Palaeolithic is often divided into lower, middle and upper. British Isles: Humans probably first arrived in Britain around 800,000 BC. These early inhabitants had to cope with extreme environmental changes and they left Britain at least seven times when conditions became too bad.

The period lasted between 800,000 and 12,000 years ago which saw the end of the last Ice Age.

Very few sites of habitation are known.

The earliest is at Happisburgh (Pronounced Hazeboro) on the Norfolk coast and another is near the village of Boxgrove, just outside Chichester in West Sussex, which is 550,000 years old. 

Many of the Palaeolithic tools found in England have been found in river terrace gravels where they were deposited by the waters from rivers and melting glaciers.



Palaeolithic / Mousterian – Scraper / Hooked Knife

Provenance – Found near the River Ter Valley, near Chelmsford, Essex.

Description – This interesting Palaeolithic stone age tool is a very early scraper, hooked knife. The item is Mousterian (Neanderthal) in origin and is very typical of what many of their tools looked like.

It is made from a brown chert, The tool has suffered a lot deterioration on its surface.

The Mousterian (or Mode III) is a techno-complex (archaeological industry) of stone tools, associated primarily with the Neanderthals in Europe, and to a lesser extent the earliest anatomically modern humans in North Africa and West Asia.

Size – 7 cm x 8.2 cm

Weight – 97g

Age – 160,000 – 40,000 BP

Found in February 2021

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