Description: A damaged grey flint cordate handaxe with rounded tip and dense mottled orange-brown patination. An ancient oblique fracture resulting in loss of most of the base and some recent shallow chips exposing the natural colour of the flint. From Ridge Pit, Romsey, near Southampton, Hampshire.
Size: 80 mm/3.1 ins. in length
Culture: Lower Palaeolithic
Date: c. 400,000-500,000 years B.P.
Notes: Ridge Pit lies on high fluviatile gravels (Nursling terrace) and has yielded over one hundred complete and fragmentary handaxes (pointed and ovate forms and cleavers) and numerous primary flakes, mostly found by a dedicated amateur John Keeting (
MacRae, 1991).
Reference:
MacRae, R. J. (1991). New Lower Palaeolithic finds from gravel pits in central southern England. Lithics, 12, 12-19.
