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ARCHAEOLOGISTS EXCITED BY 500,000-YEAR-OLD AXE FIND IN QUARRY

Dec, 17 2004

ARCHAEOLOGISTS EXCITED BY 500,000-YEAR-OLD AXE FIND IN QUARRY (UK) A Stone Age hand axe dating back 500,000 years has been discovered at a quarry in Warwickshire. (Photo: The image shows the axe head from different angles. Photo: Graham Norrie, University of Birmingham Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity.) The tool was found at the Smiths Concrete Bubbenhall Quarry at Waverley Wood Farm, near Coventry, which has already produced evidence of some of the earliest known human occupants of the UK. It was uncovered in gravel by quarry manager John Green who took it to be identified by archaeologists at the University of Birmingham. "We are very excited about this discovery," enthused Professor David Keen of the university's Archaeology Field Unit. "Lower Palaeolithic artefacts are comparatively rare in the West Midlands compared to the south and east of England so this is a real find for us." Despite being half and million years old the tool is very well-preserved and will eventually go on show at Warwickshire Museum. Amongst other things, the hand axe would have been used for butchering animals, but what is perhaps most intriguing about it is that it is made of a type of volcanic rock called andesite. By David Prudames

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