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LOT 1555
Stone Age Acheulean 'Homo Erectus' Red Quartzite Handaxe
LOWER PALAEOLITHIC PERIOD, CIRCA 1,000,000-500,000 B.P.
6 3/4 in. (1 kg, 17 cm).
Biconvex in section with large rounded butt and narrow tip (absent). [No Reserve]
ProvenanceFound Northern Sahara, North Africa.
From the British art market in the 1970s-1980s.
Acquired via inheritance, 1988.
From the collection of a South West London, UK, specialist Stone Age collector.
Cf. MacGregor, A. (ed.), Antiquities from Europe and the Near East in the Collection of Lord McAlpine of West Green, Oxford, 1987, item 1.1, for type.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 1555
Stone Age Acheulean 'Homo Erectus' Red Quartzite Handaxe
Sold for (Inc. bp): £442
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Large Stone Age Oval Pecked Stone Macehead
Neolithic Period, circa 4th-3rd millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £143
Ellipsoid in plan with shallow socket to each face. 1.22 kg, 14.5 cm
From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.
The opposed depressions imply that the creator had begun the process of making the vertical mounting socket. -
Stone Age 'Swanscombe' Classic Pointed Flint Handaxe
Palaeolithic Period, circa 425,000-362,000 B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £364
Classic pointed handaxe from the type-site at Swanscombe, Kent; mainly hard hammer struck with two small areas of cortex remaining near the butt. 121 grams, 88 mm
Found Swanscombe, Kent, UK. From a private Norfolk, UK, collection. From the collection of a South West London, UK, specialist Stone Age collector.
The middle gravels from which this axe most likely came date to the Hoxnian Interglacial period at MIS 11 (425-362 B.C.) and are associated with the only known hominin remains from the Hoxnian which had features of both Neanderthal and modern humans. (Wymer 1999, p.77.) -
Massive European Stone Age Flint Axehead
Neolithic Period, circa 4000-2000 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £715
Substantial cleaver pre-form with rounded butt. 22 grams, 24.5 cm
Found continental Europe. Ex Victor Brox collection, UK, formed during the 1980s-1990s. From the collection of a South West London, UK, specialist Stone Age collector.
Preforms such as this unusually large and undamaged example were widely traded during Neolithic times and were a valuable commodity in communities which lacked suitable material for stone tool production. There has been research showing signs of wear from rubbing against cloth, suggesting that they might have been carried over long distances.
