Skip to content
Pitt Rivers Museum
AboutHire the MuseumNewsletterUniversity of Oxford

1904.49.1

Stone tool, hand axe. [MJD 08/05/2013]

1904.49.1

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Terms and Conditions

If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.

Collection type
Object
Description
Stone tool, hand axe. [MJD 08/05/2013]
Long description
Stone tool, hand axe. The stone is mid orange grey in colour. [MJD 08/05/2013]
Person
Maker Unknown Maker
Field collector F.W. Knowles
Field collector Francis Howe Seymour Knowles
PRM source F.W. Knowles
PRM source Francis Howe Seymour Knowles
Date / Period
Archaeological period: Palaeolithic
Date collected
1899
Acquisition information
Purchased: 1904
Materials and processes
Material Stone, Process Flaked
Dimensions
Width: max 140 mm, Length: max 196 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1904.49.1
Research and responses

In all probability this is actually Francis Howe Seymour Knowles, in the Annual Report of 1905 it says: 'Mr F. W. Knowles, of Oriel College has continued his practical study of the flight of the boomerang.' but in the 1906 Annual Report of the museum it says: '... and Mr F. H. S. Knowles, who has continued his practical researches into the characteristics and capabilities of the boomerang and the spear-thrower.' This suggests to me that for some reason Balfour recorded his name inaccurately until 1906 when it was corrected. This would fit with the date of this entry [AP 15/03/2004] It cannot be his son Francis Gerald William Knowles because he was not born until 1915, see biographies file [AP 03/03/2005]

Note that a large number of items come from a gravel pit in Biddenham, near Bedford, that is a mile and a half from the centre of Bedford and may therefore be the same quarry [AP 28/07/2006] According to http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/17/Beds_1.htm the gravel pit at Biddenham was '... owned by S.W. Jarvis & Son, a firm of stone and monumental masons in Alexandra Road, Bedford.' [AP 28/07/2006]

F.H.S. Knowles carried out some analysis of his own collection from Biddenham and used the collection to furnish examples for his publication "Knowles, F.H.S. 1953. Stone-worker's progress: a study of stone implements in the Pitt Rivers Museum. Oxford:University Press" [CB 28/10/2009]

Search terms: Tool, Hand-axe

Further items to explore