Gray's Inn Lane Hand Axe
Encyclopedia
The Gray's Inn Lane Hand Axe is a pointed flint hand axe
, found buried in gravel under Gray's Inn Lane
, London, England, by pioneering archaeologist John Conyers
in 1679, and now in the British Museum
. The hand axe is a fine example from about 350,000 years ago, in the Lower Paleolithic
period, but its main significance lies in the place it and the circumstances of its excavation played in the emerging understanding of the early history of mankind.
at Battlebridge in gravel; the site was near Gray's Inn Lane, opposite "Black Mary's", and the remaining tooth was later thought to be of a mammoth
or straight-tusked elephant
. A pointed flint hand axe
was found nearby,
At the time, it was commonly thought that humans had been on earth for a relatively short period of time, and that stone tools were used by people who simply lacked the knowledge to create metal tools.
Conyers was the first to argue that it was a human artefact. After Conyers' death, John Bagford
(1650–1716) published the discovery, rejecting the idea that the assemblage of elephant bones and stone axe had originated from the time of Noah's flood, arguing instead for its origin in the Roman period under the Emperor Claudius; this was in a letter of 1715, in which Bagford accepted the human origin of the handaxe. With other items from Conyers' collection, the handaxe passed to the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, whose own collection was one of the founding collections of the British Museum. It is now displayed in the Enlightenment Gallery there.
Hand axe
A hand axe is a bifacial Stone tool typical of the lower and middle Palaeolithic , and is the longest-used tool of human history.-Distribution:...
, found buried in gravel under Gray's Inn Lane
Gray's Inn Road
Gray's Inn Road, formerly Gray's Inn Lane, is a major road in central London, in the London Borough of Camden. It is named after Gray's Inn, one of the main Inns of Court. The road starts in Holborn, near Chancery Lane tube station and the boundaries of the City of London and the London Borough...
, London, England, by pioneering archaeologist John Conyers
John Conyers (apothecary)
John Conyers was an English apothecary and pioneering archaeologist.Conyers had a shop in Fleet Street, near St Paul's Cathedral during the period of construction of Sir Christopher Wren's new cathedral to replace Old St Paul's after the Great Fire of London, and collected the medieval and Roman...
in 1679, and now in the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. The hand axe is a fine example from about 350,000 years ago, in the Lower Paleolithic
Lower Paleolithic
The Lower Paleolithic is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 2.5 million years ago when the first evidence of craft and use of stone tools by hominids appears in the current archaeological record, until around 300,000 years ago, spanning the...
period, but its main significance lies in the place it and the circumstances of its excavation played in the emerging understanding of the early history of mankind.
Discovery
John Conyers was present at the excavation in 1679 of the remains of a supposed elephantElephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
at Battlebridge in gravel; the site was near Gray's Inn Lane, opposite "Black Mary's", and the remaining tooth was later thought to be of a mammoth
Mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...
or straight-tusked elephant
Straight-tusked Elephant
The Straight-tusked Elephant is an extinct species of elephant closely related to the living Asian Elephant. It inhabited Europe during the Middle and Late Pleistocene . Some experts regard the smaller Asian species E...
. A pointed flint hand axe
Hand axe
A hand axe is a bifacial Stone tool typical of the lower and middle Palaeolithic , and is the longest-used tool of human history.-Distribution:...
was found nearby,
At the time, it was commonly thought that humans had been on earth for a relatively short period of time, and that stone tools were used by people who simply lacked the knowledge to create metal tools.
Conyers was the first to argue that it was a human artefact. After Conyers' death, John Bagford
John Bagford
John Bagford was a British antiquarian, writer, bibliographer, ballad-collector and bookseller.-Life:...
(1650–1716) published the discovery, rejecting the idea that the assemblage of elephant bones and stone axe had originated from the time of Noah's flood, arguing instead for its origin in the Roman period under the Emperor Claudius; this was in a letter of 1715, in which Bagford accepted the human origin of the handaxe. With other items from Conyers' collection, the handaxe passed to the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, whose own collection was one of the founding collections of the British Museum. It is now displayed in the Enlightenment Gallery there.