NHER 55744 (Monument record) - Palaeolithic handaxe and other worked flints (Happisburgh Site 2)

May 2004. Stray Find.
Found by S. Parfitt and J. J. Wymer in situ in Wroxham formation gravel at base of cliff:
1 Lower Palaeolithic flint handaxe. Irregular and possibly made with a hard hammer. See drawings (S1) and (S2).
Identified by P. Robins (NCM), see description and drawing in file.
This handaxe was discovered when an archaeological excavation was being undertaken at Happisburgh Site 1 by the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) project (NHER 35385). While these excavations were underway, AHOB researchers Simon Parfitt and John Wymer took the opportunity to explore the beach and the cliffs further, in search of other exposed Palaeolithic deposits. At the foot of the cliffs near to the site of the former lifeboat ramp they discovered an outcrop of gravel which had another handaxe firmly embedded in it, although this example showed some signs of having been damaged by geological movements during its time in the ground.
This discovery was first reported in (S3). The discovery of the handaxe is also described in (S4) and (S5), both of which reproduce (S2).
Previously recorded under NHER 36532.
E. Darch (NLA), 12 August 2004. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 28 July 2014.

Later 2004. Trial Excavations.
Further investigation by Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) project. A small excavation took place adjacent to the findspot of the handaxe (now designated Happisburgh Site 2). These investigations were necessarily brief as the location is dangerously close to the unstable cliffs.
This work recovered a small assemblage of additional worked flints comprising 2 flakes and 3 cores. These objects were found to lie with a small 1-2m wide gully with a lag gravel that was cut into a ‘rootlet bed’. No environmental data survived and a result there is currently no firm dating evidence for this site, although it was conclusively demonstrated that both the gully and the rootlet bed underlie the glacial deposits that form the cliffs. The site must therefore predates the Anglian glaciation and cannot be less than 450,000 years old. It is possible that the evidence from this site was of a similar age to that which has now been recovered at Happisburgh Site 1 – which is now dated by its excavators to the warmer interglacial that preceded the Anglian glaciation (Marine Isotope State (MIS) 13 – c. 500,000 years ago). As at Happisburgh Site 1 the presence of a handaxe is consistent with such a date. As noted in (S5) there are however marked differences between the two handaxes, the one from Happisburgh Site 1 being a finely worked ovate, whereas the one from this site is a much cruder implement that had probably been made with a hard hammer.
Information supplied by British Museum.
P. Watkins (HES), 28 July 2014.