c.400,000 B.C. A good Lower Paleolithic "Clactonian" Chisel tipped hand axe found on the Freston foreshore of the River Orwell, Ipswich, Suffolk and from a old Suffolk collection. Fashioned from a nodule of black flint struck from the outer edge of a flint pebble; pebble cortex remaining over much of the hand axe to aide grip in the hand whilst one prominent part of the pebble has then been bi-facially worked to form a narrow "chisel tipped" functional cutting / chopping edge. [The Clactonian culture derives it name from a collection of prehistoric material originally found on a site close to Clacton-On-Sea in Essex, England. At the famous site of Swanscombe, Kent, the deposit known as the Lower Gravels contained large amounts of distinctive Clactonian style tools, suggesting that a Clactonian tribe had established a riverside campsite in the area over 400,000 years ago. The Clactonian tribe made distinctive tools from flint pebbles and flakes struck from larger nodules. Some of these tools were quite crude, just simple worked pebbles, but others show a higher standard of craftsmanship, particularly flint cores worked to a rough edge for use as choppers or chopping tools]. In very nice condition with good old surface ageing and a shiny patination to the worked surfaces, a good early stone age hand axe, 80mm long x 85mm wide x 45mm at thickest.