1. Welton le Wold stone axes
The oldest human-made tools currently known in Lincolnshire, dating to c.300,000 years ago.
These are the oldest human-made tools currently known in Lincolnshire, dating to c.300,000 years ago. This time period is known as the Palaeolithic or the Old Stone Age. The hand axes are made from flint. They are of a type known as Acheulian, named after Saint Acheul, a site in northern France where the first examples were identified in the 19th Century. The earliest Acheulian hand axes were made more than one million years ago.
These Acheulian hand axes in the museum were discovered in the disused gravel quarry in Welton-le-Wold, a site of special scientific interest. The quarry site is important because it provides an insight into the geological history of Lincolnshire during the last Ice Age, seen through a well preserved sequence of deposits of boulder clay, gravel and sand. As well as the flint tools, remains of animals such as straight tusked elephant, deer, horse and bison have been found.
