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The Clactonian is the name given by archaeologists to an industry of European flint tool manufacture that dates to the early part of the interglacial period known as the Hoxnian, the Mindel-Riss or the Holstein interglacial (300,000–200,000 years ago). Clactonian tools were made by Homo erectus rather than modern humans. The term is sometimes applied to early, crude flint tools from other regions that were made using similar methods. The Neolithic Revolution is the term for the first agricultural revolution, describing the transition from nomadic hunting and gathering communities and bands, to agriculture and settlement, as first adopted by various independent prehistoric human societies, in numerous locations on most continents between 10-12 thousand years ago. ... Dogs and sheep were among the first animals to be domesticated. ... Ancient stone tools A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made of stone. ... An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools Excavated dwellings at Skara Brae Scotland, Europes most complete Neolithic village. ... Pottery on display in Dilli Haat, Delhi, India. ... The Chalcolithic (Greek khalkos + lithos copper stone) period, also known as the Eneolithic (Aeneolithic) or Copper Age period, is a phase in the development of human culture in which the use of early metal tools appeared alongside the use of stone tools. ... Georg Agricola, author of De re metallica, an important early book on metal extraction Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their compounds, which are called alloys. ... There are a number of theories regarding the domestication of the horse. ... For other uses, see Wheel (disambiguation). ... The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze. ... Archaeology or sometimes in American English archeology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains, including architecture, artefacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ... Glaciation, often called an ice age, is a geological phenomenon in which massive ice sheets form in the Arctic and Antarctic and advance toward the equator. ... The Hoxnian interglacial is a name for an interglacial period which occurred between 300,000 and 200,000 years ago. ... The Mindel is a river in Bavaria, southern Germany. ... The Riß is a small river in Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany. ... Binomial name (Dubois, 1892) Synonyms † Pithecanthropus erectus † Sinanthropus pekinensis † Javanthropus soloensis † Meganthropus paleojavanicus Homo erectus (Latin: upright man) is an extinct species of the genus Homo. ... This article is about the sedimentary rock. ...

It is named after 300,000 year old finds made by 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 along with the remains of a giant elephant and hippopotamus. Further examples of the tools have been found at sites including Barnfield Pit 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 (archaeology). The flakes would have been used as crude knives or scrapers. Unlike the Oldowan tools from which Clactonian ones derived, 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. Palaeochannels are deposits of unconsolidated or semi-consolidated sedimentary rocks deposited in ancient, currently inactive river and stream channel systems. ... Town - Clacton-on-Sea Location - Essex, England Founded - 1871 Population (1991) - 45,065 Clacton-on-Sea is the largest town on the Tendring Peninsula, in Essex, England. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... For other meanings of Essex, see Essex (disambiguation). ... In archaeology, an artifact or artefact is any object made or modified by a human culture, and often one later recovered by some archaeological endeavor. ... In archaeology, a chopping tool is a form of prehistoric stone tool, considered to be a refinement of the earlier chopper. ... Flake can be: fish flake, a platform made from dried timber where fish (predominantly cod-fish) can be cured in the sun. ... Binomial name Hippopotamus antiquus Desmarest 1822 The European Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus antiquus) was a species of hippopotamus that ranged across Europe, becoming extinct some time before the last ice age at the end of the Pleistocene epoch. ... Barnfield Pit is the site of a gravel quarry near the village of Swanscombe in the north west of the English county of Kent. ... , Swanscombe is a village, part of the Borough of Dartford on the north Kent coast in England. ... For other uses, see Kent (disambiguation). ... Barnham is a village and civil parish in the St Edmundsbury district of Suffolk, England. ... Suffolk (pronounced ) is a large historic and modern non-metropolitan county in East Anglia, England. ... Chopper may mean: Chopper (motorcycle), where many parts were removed (chopped) or replaced Raleigh Chopper, a bicycle model styled and named after these motorcycles Helicopter, slang for chopper (archaeology), a type of crude stone tool Mark Brandon Chopper Read, Australian criminal, author and recording artist Lambda Chi Alpha, nickname for... Oldowan is an anthropological designation for an industry of stone tools used by prehistoric hominids in the very early Paleolithic. ... Retouch - the work done to a flint implement after its preliminary roughing-out in order to make it into a functional tool. ... In lithic analysis, a subdivision of archaeology, a bulb of applied force (also known as a bulb of percussion or simply bulb of force) is a defining characteristic of a lithic flake. ... In archaeology, a hammerstone is a hard cobble used to strike lithic flakes off a lump of tool stone during the process of lithic reduction. ...

The Clactonian controversy

The Clactonian industry may have co-existed with the Acheulean industry, which used identical basic techniques but which also had handaxe technology; tools made by bifacially working a flint core. In the 1990s it was argued ^[1] that the difference between Clactonian and Acheulean may be a false distinction however. The Clactonian industry may in fact be the same thing as the Acheulean and only assessed as being different due to its tools being Acheulean ones made by individuals who had no need for handaxes on the occasion that they made them. Differences in environment and the availability and quality of local raw materials may account for the differences between the two industries, which, at one point it was inferred, were only perceived by modern archaeologists. Acheulean hand-axes from Kent. ... A hand axe is a bifacial Paleolithic core tool. ... Flint biface from Saint-Acheul, France. ...

However, the 2004 excavation of a butchered Pleistocene elephant at the Southfleet Road site of High Speed 1 in Kent recovered numerous Clactonian flint tools but no handaxes. As a handaxe would have been more useful than a chopper in dismembering an elephant carcass it is considered strong evidence of the Clactonian being a separate industry. Flint of sufficient quality was available in the area and it is likely that the people who carved up the elephant did not possess the knowledge to make the more advanced bifacial handaxe. Proponents of the Clactonian as an independent industry point to the lack of concrete evidence in favour of it being an anomalous Acheulean industry. The precise provenance of the few attributed bifacial Clactonian tools (which point to Acheulean influence) is in dispute. The Pleistocene epoch (IPA: ) on the geologic timescale is the period from 1,808,000 to 11,550 years BP. The Pleistocene epoch had been intended to cover the worlds recent period of repeated glaciations. ... 0 km London St Pancras Temple Mills Eurostar Depot 9 km Stratford International 10 km 21 km 27 km 30 km 32 km 37 km Ebbsfleet International 39 km 50 km 54 km 88 km 89 km 90 km Ashford International 91 km 106 km Dollands Moor Freight terminal 108... Provenance is the origin or source from which anything comes. ...

The traditional chronology of Clactonian being followed by Acheulean is also being increasingly challenged since finds of Acheulean tools were made at Boxgrove in Sussex and High Lodge in Suffolk. These finds came from deposits connected with the Anglian glaciation, the glaciation that preceded the Hoxnian and therefore would have preceded the Clactonian. Whether or not the they are separate industries it would seem that the 'Clactonian' and 'Acheulean' stone tool makers would have had cultural contact with each other. Boxgrove is the name of a Lower Palaeolithic archaeological site discovered in a gravel quarry to the east of Chichester in the English county of West Sussex. ... This article refers to the historic county in England. ... The Anglian glaciation is a name for an ice age period which occurred between 450,000 and 300,000 years ago. ...

See also

• Acheulean
• Synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures

Acheulean hand-axes from Kent. ... The table gives a rough picture of the relationships between the various principal cultures of Prehistory outside the Americas, Antarctica, Australia and Oceania. ...

References

Butler, C, Prehistoric Flintwork, Tempus : Strood, 2005

External links

• Drawings of Clactonian tools
• The Southfleet Road elephant

Footnotes

^  Ashton, N, McNabb, J et al., Contemporaneity of Clactonian and Acheulian flint industries at Barnham, Suffolk Antiquity 68, 260, pp 585–589