British/European 'Handaxe Sculpture' Symbolizing Traditon / a)cromerbiface7lb

Moir, J. R. (1927: pl. 1): "Great Hand-Axe Weighing 7 lb. From the Cromer Forest Bed.

The Cromer Forest Bed, West Runton, England, is dated to the Cromerian, OIS 13, c. 500,000 BP. For stratigraphy see Derek Roe (1981: table 2) [Roe, D. (1981). The Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Periods in Britain. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul]. For dating see Bowen, D., Hughes, S., Sykes, G., and Miller, G. (1989). Land-sea correlations in the Pleistocene based on isoleucine epimerization in non-marine molluscs. Nature 340: 49-50.

Comment: While the contemporaneous Boxgrove cordiforms and ovates appear to be highly functional for meatcutting, would one hypothesize the same for a handaxe weighing 7 pounds? The likely hypothesis, especially given the symbolic capacity of the Middle Acheulian Abbevillian-style handaxes, would be that some handaxes like this one served a ritual and symbolic role, and this role would have built upon that of the Abbevillian-style handaxes. This Cromer handaxe even appears to continue the thick shape of the Abbevillian-style into OIS 13 and with it its symbolic intent.

Photo © J. Reid Moir. Moir, J. R. (1927). The antiquity of man in East Anglia. Cambridge: At the University Press. Plate 1.