Axe Men
Prehistoric hand-axes dredged from the North Sea by Hanson Aggregates Marine, won the Best Archaeological Discovery Award at the 2008 British Archaeology Awards.
The seventy-five flint hand-axes, which may be more than 100,000 years old, were discovered in sand and gravel dredged off Great Yarmouth and delivered to a wharf at Flushing, in the Netherlands, in February 2008. Dutch amateur palaeontologist Jan Meulmeester, who regularly searches for mammoth bones and fossils in material on the wharf, unearthed what has been described as one of the most important finds discovered in English waters.
The award-winning axes have been preserved under a reporting protocol set in place by BMAPA and English Heritage. As part of this protocol, Hanson have now moved dredging to another part of the seabed. Pictured above (left to right) are Mark Russell, BMAPA director, Robert Langman, senior resources manager with Hanson Aggregates Marine, Jan Meulmeester, and Dr Carenza Lewis of Channel 4’s ‘Time Team’.
The seventy-five flint hand-axes, which may be more than 100,000 years old, were discovered in sand and gravel dredged off Great Yarmouth and delivered to a wharf at Flushing, in the Netherlands, in February 2008. Dutch amateur palaeontologist Jan Meulmeester, who regularly searches for mammoth bones and fossils in material on the wharf, unearthed what has been described as one of the most important finds discovered in English waters.
The award-winning axes have been preserved under a reporting protocol set in place by BMAPA and English Heritage. As part of this protocol, Hanson have now moved dredging to another part of the seabed. Pictured above (left to right) are Mark Russell, BMAPA director, Robert Langman, senior resources manager with Hanson Aggregates Marine, Jan Meulmeester, and Dr Carenza Lewis of Channel 4’s ‘Time Team’.
