Questions and Anomalies / b)swnscmb36

Roe (1981: fig.3:6): "Artefacts from the Middle Gravels at Swmanscome, Kent (Wymer's excavations of 1955-60). Nos. 1-9, 17-19, handaxes; nost 10-16, flake-tools; Nos 1 and 17 are ficrons. After Wymer in Ovey 1964." The Swanscombe Upper Loam belongs to the ‘Pointed Handaxe Tradition’ dated to OIS 11. c. 400,000 BP.

Only the first 8 artifacts depicted in Roe's illustration are shown here.

Image submitted by Jan Evert Musch, Netherlands. Musch has suggested that object 3 represents a face or mask in lower half of object. One eye, nostrils and mouth are suggested. Object 5 shows a hominid head in profile. Object 8 is possibly a profile face on left side of object with a face and/or female breast opposite on the right side.

Illus. © Roe, D. (1981). The Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Periods in Britain. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul]. Figure 3:6. After Wymer in Ovey, C. D. (ed.). (1964). The Swanscombe Skull: a survey of research at a Pleistocene site. (Occasional Paper no. 20) London: Royal Anthropological Institute.