Clactonian

Clactonian

Clactonian Flake Tool from Rickson’s Farm pit, Swanscombe, Kent, UK.
Geographical range	England
Period	Lower Paleolithic
Dates	c. 424,000 – c. 400,000 BP
Type site	Clacton-on-Sea
Major sites	Barnham, Nile, Swanscombe Heritage Park
Preceded by	Acheulean
Followed by	Mousterian

The Clactonian is the name given by

It is named after 400,000-year-old finds made by Hazzledine Warren in a

.

An "Egyptian version" of the Clactonian industry was proposed in 1972, based on excavations on the banks of the

The Clactonian controversy

The Clactonian industry may have co-existed with the

bifacially

working a flint core.

The justification for considering "Clactonian" as a tradition distinct from Acheulean has been called into question in a 1994 article. The Clactonian industry may in fact be the same thing as the Acheulean and only assessed as being different due to its tools being Acheulean ones made by individuals who had no need for handaxes on the occasion that they made them. Differences in environment and the availability and quality of local raw materials may account for the differences between the two industries, which, at one point it was inferred, were only perceived by modern archaeologists.[4]

However, the 2004 excavation of a butchered Pleistocene elephant at the Southfleet Road site of High Speed 1 in Kent recovered numerous Clactonian flint tools but no handaxes. As a handaxe would have been more useful than a chopper in dismembering an elephant carcass it is considered strong evidence of the Clactonian being a separate industry. Flint of sufficient quality was available in the area and it is likely that the people who carved up the elephant did not possess the knowledge to make the more advanced bifacial handaxe.^{[citation needed]} Proponents^[who?] of the Clactonian as an independent industry point to the lack of concrete evidence in favour of it being an anomalous Acheulean industry. The precise provenance of the few attributed bifacial Clactonian tools (which point to Acheulean influence) is in dispute.^{[citation needed]}

The traditional chronology of Clactonian being followed by Acheulean is also being increasingly challenged^{[by whom?]} since finds of Acheulean tools were made at Boxgrove in Sussex and High Lodge in Suffolk. ^{[citation needed]} These finds came from deposits connected with the

, the glaciation that preceded the Hoxnian Stage and therefore would have preceded the Clactonian. Whether or not they are separate industries it would seem that the 'Clactonian' and 'Acheulean' stone tool makers would have had cultural contact with each other.

showing important sites of the Clactonian industry (clickable map).