An amateur archaeologist has found an “unprecedented” collection of stone tools by sifting through materials dredged from the bottom of the North Sea (quote from National Geographic; story from ScienceDaily press release). Jan Meulmeester of the Netherlands found 28 stone ‘axes’ (small pieces of stone that have obviously been shaped by human hands into a useful blade) along with remains of animals that they probably butchered in a mass of sand scooped up by a UK construction materials supplier. They are thought to be 100,000 years old, from a time when Britain was not an island and this part of the world was not underwater.
Stone axes like this are hardly uncommon in the British countryside. But it’s odd to find them at sea. National Geographic tells us that “Fishermen have pulled the occasional stone tool or bone from the North Sea, but this trove—dug 8 miles (13 kilometers) off the coast near Great Yarmouth in the United Kingdom—suggests something far more than a random find.”
Apparently the dredging industry’s trade association, The British Marine Aggregate Producers Association, has signed a deal with English Heritage to help ensure that artefacts from English waters get found and preserved (press release). As such it’s slightly confusing why such finds haven’t been made before, and why this one was made in Holland… It also poses the question of whether there’s any dredging going on off the coast of Cornwall, and whether this deal might up the odds of someone finding an infamous gold medal that was apparently chucked into that part of the sea. Dredging News Online (which really exists, with the excellent URL www.sandandgravel.com) has this story, but sadly doesn’t answer my questions.
National Geographic says the find “proves that artifacts from that ancient period remain exceptionally well preserved below the seafloor”. Clearly stone isn’t going to rot or anything while underwater… but perhaps researchers were worried they might be eroded into shapeless pebbles? It doesn’t say.
Image courtesy of Wessex Archaeology