A little boy made an incredible discovery on Shoreham beach, Sussex, United Kingdom: a 60,000 year old ax. A find that dates back three years, when the child was only 6 years old. Until he was 9 years old, he kept his precious treasure in his room, without knowing its origin, the BBC reported this Wednesday. It was only this year, during a visit to the museum in Worthing (United Kingdom) at the beginning of November, that the little boy got the hint.
When he saw the Stone Age exhibition, he realized that he had an object similar to those on display. “I was looking around me and I saw this shiny flint,” testified the young Briton, whose discovery was described as “extraordinary” by the museum. “They said it was their best find in ten years,” the little boy enthused. […] My heart was beating very hard. »
A tool tens of thousands of years old
According to the museum, where the ax is currently on display, the object would have been “certainly made by a Neanderthal” 40,000 to 60,000 years ago, at the end of the Middle Paleolithic, indicates Fox News. “I wanted to keep it, but I thought it would be better there than in my hands,” the child commented. “Seeing how it lit up the face of the museum archaeologist, it’s great that others can benefit from it,” said his mother.
The origin of the object is complex to determine, said a museum spokesperson. “It is very difficult to say with certainty whether the ax was lost at this location or whether it was taken from river deposits offshore during work to strengthen the beach defences,” he said. The ax will be returned to its young owner next February after being registered “as part of the British Museum's portable antiquities program” in order to keep a record of it.
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