Later Acheulian Exotic Stones / f)swanscmprt1

K. P. Oakley (1973: pl. 1B): "Polished section of Corallian Isastraea. Weymouth, Dorset. Length of slab 8.5 cm. (British Museum of Natural History, London)." Oakely notes that "polished or transversely-broken surfaces of fossil corals of compound type such as Isastraea (Pl. 1B) evidently can recall the heavens to the untutored mind, for in the folklore of Britain such coraline rock became known as starrystone (Plot 1676:89)[Plot, R. (1676 [1705]). The Natural History of Oxfordshire. Oxford].

Oakley (1981) notes the West Tofts and Swanscombe Middle Gravels handaxes with fossil shell and five-pointed sea urchin at their plan face centers; also from Swanscombe Middle Gravels are two pieces of chert containing Jurassic fossil coral in which the corallites are on average five-sided pentagons; they were associated with handaxes. The chert pieces are manuports; the only known location for coral-bearing chert in Britain being 193 kilometers away. Oakley infers that these artefacts/naturefacts reflect the emergence of "art as human behaviour" and "higher thought" [Oakley, K. P. (1981). Emergence of higher thought 3.0-0.2 Ma B.P. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London B 292:205-211; (1973). Fossils collected by the earlier palaeolithic men. In Mélanges de préhistoire, d’archéocivilization et d’ethnologie offerts à André Varagnac, pp. 581-584. Paris: Serpen].

Illus. © Oakley, K. P. (1973). Fossils collected by the earlier palaeolithic men. In Mélanges de préhistoire, d’archéocivilization et d’ethnologie offerts à André Varagnac, pp. 581-584. Paris: Serpen. Plate 1B.