Sussex Boy Finds Rare Neanderthal Axe
Tejal Somvanshi
Neanderthal is a group of archaic people who lived in the Eurasian region during the middle-paleolithic age and showed similar traits to hunter-gatherers.
Neanderthals went extinct around forty thousand years ago due to various causes like climate change, diseases, inter-species breeding and so on.
Given the fact that these archaic humans lived thousands of years ago, archaeological findings related to them are very rare, especially in areas that’s not Eurasia.
A young boy, while playing on the beach in Sussex stumbled across a pebble that immediately caught his eyes for being different from others.
The pebble stayed with the boy for a few years before he noticed similar artefacts while visiting the Worthing Museum’s Stone Age exhibition.
The young boy, Ben, when mailed the pictures of his beach finding to the curator of the museum James Sainsbury, he was skeptical, but upon seeing the pictures he realized that it was no ordinary pebble, it was a Neanderthal artefact.
Turns out the unique pebble from the beach at Sussex is a Neanderthal axe, a very rare finding especially in Sussex, this discovery thrilled the boy and he has loaned it to the museum until early next year, and would be recorded under British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme
The overall quality of the pebble turned Neanderthal axe looked fine without much wear and tear, giving us further insight on their lifestyle so many years back. The axe completely fits the description of usual tools used by the Neanderthals.
Turns out one doesn’t need special training or pedigrees to make an archaeological discovery, being curious and observant is enough, however one should always report the finding so that they can be recorded.