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Hampshire

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Axe on the beach from 8,500 years ago


Dog-walker Jamie Stevenson took a stroll along the beach – and stumbled across an axe head dating back to the stone age.

Mr Stevenson, a Radio Solent newsreader, said: 'My dog Woody likes chasing stones when I skim them on the water, and so I just happened to pick it up.

'It felt different and looked different. It moulded nicely into my hands. When I looked at it more closely I saw that the edges were cut to be sharp.'

Mr Stevenson took the stone he found on Prinsted Beach to Havant Museum.

It was forwarded to Kay Ainsworth, the keeper of archaeology at Hampshire Museums Service.

She said: 'This is a very nice example of a flint Mesolithic era axe. The general shape suggests that it was used as an adze – a stone-age carpentry tool.'

Mr Stevenson said: 'The museum dated it to around 8,500BC.

The axe head was returned to Mr Stevenson, who plans to keep it safe.

From Portsmouth Today
Jane Posted by Jane
27th March 2004ce
Edited 27th March 2004ce

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