British/European 'Handaxe Sculpture' Symbolizing Traditon / j)cyslacom

Acheulian biface, elongated pointed ovate type, Cys-la-Commune, Aisne River Valley, France, Final Acheulian, Eemian Interglacial, c. 115,000-127,000 BP.

Comment: This biface has a reddish inclusion at the 'womb center' and also at the tip (not as evident in photo as in reality). It was examined in February 1991 at Surface Science Labs, Mountain View, CA, courtesy of Robert N. Anderson, Ph.D, Department of Materials Engineering, San Jose State University. ESCA was applied with the following results: the red stain at tip and center contained no material significantly different from the rock matrix and is not of recent origin. Thus, one may hypothesize that the artist flaked the piece in such a way as to place the red stains at the tip and center. This may interpreted as meant to signify the 'head' and 'womb' of the object, in other words, the 'birthgiver' or 'goddess'.

Thus there is at least one strong case for the existence of the Later Acheulian 'Handaxe Sculpture' Symbolizing Tradition at a site on mainland Europe. It may be that there are many more examples of the ‘handaxe sculpture’ tradition in the European ‘Classic Acheulian’ tool tradition. The ‘handaxe sculpture’ symbolic tradition may span both the British Pointed Cordiform Group and the European Classic Acheulian industries. J. E. Musch has identified possible ‘handaxe sculptures’ from micro-Acheulian sites at Iegelpoel and Helden, Netherlands that lend support to the notion of a pan-European Classic Acheulian ‘handaxe sculpture’ tradition. Further research is needed to convincingly determine this.

Photographer © James Harrod. Collection -- James Harrod. Purchased from a Cys-la-Commune antiquarian shop by Jan Evert Musch, with identification as coming from Cys-la-Commune Eemian gravels, and gifted to James Harrod.