EP Gallery: Middle Acheulian -- Olorgesailie, Olduvai Gorge, Near East, Abbevillian (c. 1.0 MYA to 500,000 BP) / u)kentcv4c41

Kent's Cavern, Torquay, Devonshire. "Archaic artefacts from Kent's Cavern, attributable to the Brecchia B 1. (1) is a bifacial side chopper, made from a pebble; (2) is a cleaver. The rest (3) through (9) are all classifiable as crude handaxes or pick-like bifaces. Traces of brecchia adhere to some specimens" (Roe 1981:101). The Kent's Cavern Brecchia B is dated to OIS 15 c. 600,000 BP.

Comment: In contrast to the Near Eastern biface assemblages typified by lanceolate handaxes and picks and the African assemblages typified by cordiform handaxes and cleavers, the typical Abbevillian tradition biface of Europe appears to be typified by an extraordinarily high thickness ratio and the combination in one biface of three shape elements: core-like in plan view; globular or pear-like in side view; and pick-like in cross-section.

Illustration D. Timms, Torquay Natural History Society © Roe, D. (1981). The lower and middle Palaeolithic periods in Britain. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul: fig4:4.