Find Spot record MDR7861 - Acheulean hand-axe, Mickleover, Derby

The find is an Acheulean Pointed hand-axe measuring 7.5cm (max. length) x 5.0cm (max. breadth). It does not appear, from the images supplied, to have a twisted margin. It would appear to be made from a quartzite cobble. The butt end appears to retain part of the original cobble skin. It is similar in size, form and raw material to many of the hand-axes previously recovered from the Etwall Sands and Gravels of the Trent Valley a few kilometres to the south. The site is some 6.5km to the north-east of the prolific hand-axe findspots at Etwall. This site lies just below 100’ on the western edge of a block of slightly elevated ground that provides the headwater for several drainages flowing south, south-west and east. (1) The axe is now in Derby Museum & Art Gallery (entry 3475). A copy of a photograph of the artefact is in the parish file. (2)