Prehistoric axe is Britain’s top treasure

The Happisburgh Hand Axe came first in a countdown of the top 50 discoveries found in Britain in the past 15 years, chosen by a panel of archaeological experts at the British Museum.

Happisburgh Hand Axe

Unearthed in 2000 on Happisburgh Beach, Norfolk, by Mike Chambers, a civil servant, the axe radically altered historians’s understanding of our past, revealing that Britain had been inhabited by human beings for 100,000 years longer than had been previously thought.

The flint hand-axe, which is on display at Norwich Castle Museum, was used by our early ancestors as a butchery tool to carve flesh off skeletons between 500,000 and 700,000 years ago.

The top 10 finds will be revealed on Sunday the ITV programme Britain’s Secret Treasures.

Roya Nikkhah / telegraph.co.uk

Related post / entrada relacionada: 08-07-10. Dig Discovers Ancient Britons Were Earliest North Europeans / El antepasado que surgió del frío.

Actualización 25-07-12: Vídeo. Stone age axe 'most significant find'.



Vídeo por salaman56 el 25-07-12, añadido a Paleo Vídeos > Prehistoria Universal > L.R.2.4 nº 23.