Clactonian

Clactonian
Clactonian Flake Tool from Rickson’s Farm pit, Swanscombe, Kent, UK.
Clactonian Flake Tool from Rickson’s Farm pit, Swanscombe, Kent, UK.
Geographical rangeEngland
PeriodLower Paleolithic
Datesc. 424,000 – c. 415,000 BP
Type siteClacton-on-Sea
Major sitesBarnham, Swanscombe Heritage Park
Preceded byAcheulean
Followed byMousterian

The Clactonian is the name given by archaeologists to an industry of European flint tool manufacture that dates to the early part of the Hoxnian Interglacial (corresponding to the global Marine Isotope Stage 11 and the continental Holstein Interglacial) around 424-415,000 years ago.[1] Clactonian tools were made by Homo heidelbergensis.[2] The Clactonian is primarly distinguished from the (globally) contemporaneous Acheulean industry by its lack of use of handaxe tools.[3]

It is named after finds made by Samuel Hazzledine Warren in a palaeochannel at Clacton-on-Sea in the English county of Essex in 1911. The artefacts found there included flint chopping tools, flint flakes and the tip of a worked wooden shaft, the Clacton Spear. Further examples of the tools have been found at sites including Barnfield Pit and Rickson's Pit,[4] near Swanscombe in Kent and Barnham in Suffolk; similar industries have been identified across Northern Europe. The Clactonian industry involved striking thick, irregular flakes from a core of flint, which was then employed as a chopper. The flakes would have been used as crude knives or scrapers. Unlike the Oldowan tools, some were notched, implying that they were attached to a handle or shaft. Retouch is uncommon and the prominent bulb of percussion on the flakes indicates use of a hammerstone.

Although in modern literature the term almost exclusively refers to finds in Britain,[5] the term was historically used broadly for finds across much of the Old World.[6] The distinctiveness of the Clactonian industry has been questioned, because its techniques are very similar to those of the Acheulean industry, and the use of handaxes is known in Britain both before (such as at Boxgrove) and after the Clactonian, with handaxes also suggested to be found at a number of Clactonian sites.[7]

  1. ^ Parfitt, Simon A.; Lewis, Mark D.; Bello, Silvia M. (2022-11-23). "Taphonomic and technological analyses of Lower Palaeolithic bone tools from Clacton-on-Sea, UK". Scientific Reports. 12 (1). doi:10.1038/s41598-022-23989-x. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 9684524. PMID 36418870.
  2. ^ Ashton, Nick (2017). Early Humans. London: William Collins. p. 145-47, 314. ISBN 978-0-00-815035-8.
  3. ^ White, Tom S.; Bridgland, David R.; Allen, Peter; White, Mark J. (August 2023). "The Clacton-on-Sea (Essex, UK) GCR site and SSSI: New data and continuing importance". Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 134 (4): 490–501. doi:10.1016/j.pgeola.2023.07.007.
  4. ^ Tester, P. J. (1984). "Clactonian Flints from Rickson's Pit, Swanscombe". Archaeologia Cantiana. 100. Kent Archaeological Society: 15–28. Retrieved 12 July 2016. Open access icon
  5. ^ McNabb, John (2020), Groucutt, Huw S. (ed.), "Problems and Pitfalls in Understanding the Clactonian", Culture History and Convergent Evolution, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 29–53, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-46126-3_3, ISBN 978-3-030-46125-6, retrieved 2024-07-28
  6. ^ Langer, William L., ed. (1972). An Encyclopedia of World History (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 9. ISBN 0-395-13592-3.
  7. ^ McNabb, John (2020), Groucutt, Huw S. (ed.), "Problems and Pitfalls in Understanding the Clactonian", Culture History and Convergent Evolution, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 29–53, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-46126-3_3, ISBN 978-3-030-46125-6, retrieved 2024-07-28