Archaeologists in southeastern England have discovered a prehistoric handaxe so big it would have been almost impossible to wield as a cutting tool. The handaxe is about 300,000 years old and is the third largest ever found in Britain.

A team from Archaeology South-East, UCL Institute of Archaeology, excavated Manor Farm in Kent ahead of construction of a new school (the Maritime Academy, which has given the finds their name). The team unearthed more than 800 Paleolithic stone artifacts in deposits of fluvial sediment from a prehistoric tributary of the River Medway. Several of them were handaxes and two of them were giants of a form known as a ficron, characterized by a rounded thick base tapering to a long, finely-worked tip. One is 23 cm (nine inches) long but missing its tip. The other is 29.6 cm (11.6 inches) long and intact. It is 11.3 cm (4.4 inches) wide at its widest point.

Senior Archaeologist Letty Ingrey (UCL Institute of Archaeology), said: “We describe these tools as ‘giants’ when they are over 22cm long and we have two in this size range. The biggest, a colossal 29.5cm in length, is one of the longest ever found in Britain. ‘Giant handaxes’ like this are usually found in the Thames and Medway regions and date from over 300,000 years ago.

“These handaxes are so big it’s difficult to imagine how they could have been easily held and used. Perhaps they fulfilled a less practical or more symbolic function than other tools, a clear demonstration of strength and skill. While right now, we aren’t sure why such large tools were being made, or which species of early human were making them, this site offers a chance to answer these exciting questions.”

The foot-long Maritime Academy ficron is in excellent condition with minimal abrasion and is larger than any of the other stone artifacts found in its bed of fluvial sand and gravel. Given those features, archaeologists believe it was found basically where it was deposited instead of having been battered over a long river voyage. Face 2 was a little more abraded and stained than Face 1, indicating the handaxe had likely spent a significant stretch of time Face 2 side up.

While archaeological finds of this age, including another spectacular ‘giant’ handaxe, have been found in the Medway Valley before, this is the first time they have been found as part of large-scale excavation, offering the opportunity to glean more insights into the lives of their makers.

Dr Matt Pope (UCL Institute of Archaeology), said: “The excavations at the Maritime Academy have given us an incredibly valuable opportunity to study how an entire Ice Age landscape developed over a quarter of a million years ago. A programme of scientific analysis, involving specialists from UCL and other UK institutions, will now help us to understand why the site was important to ancient people and how the stone artefacts, including the ‘giant handaxes’ helped them adapt to the challenges of Ice Age environments.”

The discovery has been published in the journal Internet Archaeology. Other notable Maritime Academy finds will be published in later papers.

An altar from the late Hellenistic era (ca. 1st century B.C.) has been discovered at the Segesta Archaeological Park in Sicily. It was found just a few centimeters under the surface during ground clearing work in the Southern Acropolis Area.

The altar is a sculpted stone piece in the shape of a truncated pyramid and decorated with carved moldings and reliefs. Small round moldings line the base while in the center is a high-relief swag topped with baskets overflowing with flowers and fruit. On the top section of the altar is a terracotta brick placed horizontally with Ionic volutes on each end. This was likely meant to hold relics or references to family heroes or ancestors. It has a niche on the back where a metal hook would have been attached to anchor it to masonry.

A second associated piece found next to it was either a smaller altar or perhaps a support for a cult statue. It has a roughly chiseled surface to aid in plaster adherence. At least three of the sides were covered in plaster originally and likely painted. Today only one small fragment of the plaster survives. The top has a molded cornice and horizontal surface, like the larger altar does. Both pieces were meant for family worship rather than for public devotions.

Segesta was founded by the Elymians, one of the three cultural groups indigenous to Sicily. Ancient sources record Segesta in territorial competition with Selinunte as early as 580 B.C. It was that long-standing conflict that drove the cities into alliances with Greek polities and colonies. Segesta partnered with Athens in the 5th century B.C. but the alliance could not prevent its destruction by the Greek tyrant Agathocles of Syracuse in 307 B.C. Whoever he didn’t kill he sold into slavery, and the city never fully recovered.

It supported Carthage in the early years of the 4th century B.C., but ditched it in the First Punic War (264 B.C.), turning to Rome for naval and military succor. It remained a significant port city through the 2nd century A.D., but the ancient sources stop mentioning it after that, and it was abandoned for good at the time of the Arab occupation of Sicily around 900 A.D.

The ruins of the Hellenistic city on a steep hilltop overlooking the Gulf of Castellamare are today an archaeological park. There’s a Greek theater and a Doric temple that was never completed.

An archaeological survey has unearthed a Roman-era necropolis and a long section of Roman aqueduct in the historic center of Belgrade near the Serbian Parliament building. Fourteen Roman tombs dating to the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. have been excavated, revealing a variety of burial styles and several significant grave goods.

Two of the tombs are rectangular and made with brick walls and arched ceilings. Another two are brick caskets. Four of them are stone sarcophaguses, affordable only to the very wealthy. One was a sort of spoglia cist, a tomb made of other tombstones recycled from older graves. A fragment of an inscribed tombstone identifies it as the funerary marker of a Roman soldier who died at the age of 46 after serving 30 years in the legions. On the other end of the spectrum, two intact skeletons were found buried simply in a pit. Their hands were crossed on the chest and the graves were oriented east-west, indicating these were Christian burials.

The tombs were looted in antiquity, but the thieves did not get every last thing. A fragment of a gold necklace with a semi-precious green stone was found under the bones of the deceased inside one of the stone sarcophagi. One object is particularly special due to its fragility and unique material. It’s a hair pin made of iridescent glass and in excellent condition. Hair pins were usually made of metal or bone. This glass version is the only one of its kind ever found in Belgrade.

The excavated area was the southeastern part of the ancient city of Singidunum, a settlement founded by the Celtic Scordisci people in the 3rd century B.C. It was conquered by Rome in 75 B.C. and rose to importance from its association with a major fort defending the Danubian Limes (the Roman military frontier that followed the Danube). It was granted the rights of a city (municipium) by Hadrian in 169 A.D., and became an official colony in 239 A.D. The future emperor Jovian was born there in 332 A.D. The Legio IV Flavia Felix was garrisoned at Singidunum from the reign of Domitian in 86 A.D. until the Hunnic invasions of the mid-5th century.

Two weeks before the discovery of the Roman graves, buried beneath Ottoman-era remains, a stretch of aqueduct emerged. The presence of a necropolis in the area was known, but a length of aqueduct 200 feet long complete with original lead pipes was an unexpected find. Archaeologists believe it was a later offshoot built in the 3rd or 4th century of the main aqueduct built by Vespasian in the 1st century and was likely used to supply fresh water to the IV Flavia Felix in the fort.

This rich archaeological site has an ignominious future in store: being paved over to make a public parking lot. The construction of the lot would destroy all the immovable ancient remains. No new plans have been made since the recent discoveries (or least none have been announced).

The City Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in Belgrade is responsible for their fate . The conditions prescribed by the institute before the construction of the garage are that the archaeological heritage that will be discovered during the research should increase the monumental heritage of the entire area where, in addition to the House of the National Assembly, there is also the building of the Agrarna banka and the endowment of Đoka Vlajković,” answered Ignjatović .

“We will wait a little longer for that decision, and one of the solutions is to present the remains within the archeological park, which would be the first of its kind in Belgrade .”