A previously unknown assemblage of Palaeolithic handaxes from Canterbury was discovered in a museum archive, by Durham Archaeology PhD researcher Pete Knowles. The assemblage contains one of the world's largest and probably finest examples of a ficron handaxe. The handaxe raises many questions about form and function: why did early Neanderthals need to craft such complex tools?
Prior to the discovery and starting his PhD research, Knowles had been independently researching the Palaeolithic flint implements from east Kent’s river Stour. A search of the HBHRS (Herne Bay Historical Records Society) archives led to the finding of a missing photograph album, ‘Flints from Fordwich (High Pit)’ by Dr Tom Armstrong Bowes, together with other associated archival material and a large collection of flint implements. Knowles was able to arrange for this collection to be gifted to The Seaside Museum, Herne Bay, on the understanding that Knowles would continue researching and curating the collection.
This led to Knowles continuing his research as a PhD student on a part-time and distance basis at Durham, co-supervised by Professor Mark White (Archaeology) and David Bridgland (Geography).
The collection, made by Dr Tom Bowes (a Herne Bay GP during the interwar period), has a long and troubled history.
It was previously held in the museum basement, which became a major problem when the basement was flooded during the 1953 North Sea storm surge. This was when much of the collection’s provenance was lost. Not only had Bowes created cryptic codes for all the sites, but these codes, accession numbers and dates of finds were written on gummed labels. The collection has since been held in temporary and insecure quarters - at one point, even a chicken shed. Successive curators have then either not recognised the collection’s significance or been unable to interpret the narratives that these artefacts of deep antiquity can tell.
Within the archive, there were several ledgers that catalogued Bowes’ collection of prehistoric stone implements, but what was particularly significant was that within these ledgers, there was a key to all the site codes.
Whilst curating and researching the collection, Knowles discovered a previously unknown assemblage of Palaeolithic ficron and cleaver handaxes. Fluvial archives with these assemblages are currently contributing to a new understanding of the technological developments in early humans.
Luckily, these artefacts still had Bowes’ original labels; after further research of the archives it was possible to trace their origin, which was a gravel pit run by Cozen and Sons, in the St Stephen’s area of Canterbury. Bowes had acquired them after at least a year of bartering from an antiquities trader in Canterbury, a trade that was previously unknown before this research. Significantly, the height of this pit places it in the middle of the local river terrace sequence; this potentially places the age of this assemblage to around 330,000 years ago, which is a key juncture in technological change in the Middle Palaeolithic.
Knowles' research has shown how the reassessment of historic museum collections and archives can unlock the lost provenance of artefacts. This approach could radically transform current understandings of the technological developments made by early humans.
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