LOT 0332

British Stone Age Knapped Flint Handaxe from Farnham, Greenhill

MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC PERIOD, CIRCA 150,000-60,000 B.P.

6 1/8 in. (301 grams, 15.6 cm).

Lanceolate in profile with broad point; inked findspot 'Farnham 1901'; repaired.

Found in 1901.
From the collection of Captain Streatfield who helped to fund the archaeology excavations at Farnham, Kent.
After Captain Streatfield passed away in the 1940s, his collection was sold at auction to a gentleman in Kent.
The collection was then sold again in the 2020’s via a UK auction house.

This handaxe is one of a group of 23 handaxes originally collected by Captain Gerald Streatfield and marked with ‘’Farnham 1901’’. The discovery of these 23 handaxes is noted by Bury (1935, 68–69) as being on “the west side of the Tilford Road (Greenhill)” where Streatfield found them. Roe (1968, 286) includes them in his gazetteer under Farnham, Greenhill with general reference SU 850 457, citing Bury’s report. Greenhill is shown on the 1873 and 1898 OS maps as a wooded area, just north of the River Bourne, at c.110 m OD, centred on SU 850 456. This location lies on the south-eastern edge of Terrace A of the River Wey sequence. References for context: Bury, H. (1935). The Farnham Terraces and their sequence. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 1, 60– 69. Roe, D. (1968). A Gazetteer of British Lower & Middle Palaeolithic Sites. CBA Research Report 8. Taylor, C. (2017). Five Palaeolithic handaxes from Farnham, with a comment on the Huband flint collection. Surrey Archaeological Collections, 100, 213–221.