Find Spot record MDO6135 - Palaeolithic handaxe from Handley Common, Sixpenny Handley

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1991, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1990, 113-114 (Serial). SDO90.

‘RECENTLY DISCOVERED HANDAXES FROM EAST DORSET
… No. 5 (Figure 5). This axe was found by Mr J. Arnold in 1977 whilst searching a field on Sixpenny Handley Common ST980175 for Mesolithic flints [Footnote: Palmer, S., 1969, ‘Some Mesolithic sites in N.Dorset’, Dorset Proceedings Vol. 91, 173-74]. The area is on the edge of a major clay with flints deposit close to one of the now dried up upper tributaries of the Rive Allen. It has grey overall patina with smaller ochreous areas. There is some frost pitting and occasional chips from its edge caused by recent agricultural damage. This axe is of classic Mousterian Bout-coupé type, very finely flaked on both sides from ‘soft hammer’ work. Fifteen axes of this type have been recorded by Roe [Footnote: Roe, D.A., 1981, The Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Periods in Britain] in Dorset mostly from the Bournemouth area. This type of handaxe appears to be produced during the close of the Ipswichian and the beginning of the Devensian.’

Record last edited

Feb 23 2018 5:24PM