Ancient find is 'surreal'

A prehistoric hand axe has been found in a dredger’s cargo being unloaded at Frindsbury wharf.

Production manager John Valsler was one of the first to handle the artefact after it was spotted by archaeologists during a monitoring visit.

“Holding something 300,000 years old is surreal. Before it was picked off the conveyor, it had not been touched since it was used by early man,” said John, from the Kent site.
“The archaeologists are here for two days a month as a condition of our seabed dredging licences.

“Occasionally, they find a bit of bone or a mammoth’s tooth, but this is the most interesting find we have had.”

Euan McNeill, from Wessex Archaeology, said the flint tool is in very good condition.

“It came from area 240, which is about seven miles off the Norfolk coast,” said Euan. “In the middle Palaeolithic-age, it would have been a floodplain as the sea level was much lower.”