NHER 60548 (Find Spot record) - Lower Palaeolithic or Neolithic 'handaxe'

Summer 2007 or Spring 2008. Stray Find.
Found by [1] while walking on the beach at Hopton-on-Sea, adjacent to the Hopton Holiday Village (at approximately TG 53448 00284):
1 ?Palaeolithic or later flint 'handaxe'.
This discovery was reported to C. R. Lewis (McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University) and the object itself was subsequently sent to A. Pryor (Southampton University) for further analysis. It was suggested by N. Ashton (British Museum) that typological features of the handaxe and its fresh condition make a Lower Palaeolithic date unlikely. It also appeared to be made of 'Lincolnshire Flint', which occurs as an erratic in some East Anglian boulder clays but is different to the flint cobbles that occurs on the beaches around Hopton. It is possible that the object is in the discarded product of a modern knapper, although microscopic analysis revealed signs of abrasion, rounding and wear on its edge suggesting it may be of greater antiquity. It was argued that the object was possibly a Neolithic implement, as was suggested for another dubious handaxe previously found at Hopton-on-Sea (NHER 41636). At Spong Hill (NHER 1012) it was noted that Lincolnshire flint had been deliberately selected for that production of Neolithic axeheads (S1).
See report (S2) for further details (draft submitted for 'Norfolk Archaeology').
P. Watkins (HES), 10 November 2014.