IDNO

LS.75419.MCBUR

Description

Top and side drawings of a "Flint Weapon found at Hoxne in Suffolk." [JD 12/01/2026]

Place

Europe British Isles; United Kingdom; England; Suffolk; Hoxne

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Frere, John

Collector / Expedition

Date

1797

Collection Name

McBurney Collection

Source

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

LS.75404.MCBUR to LS.75450.MCBUR were found inside the wooden slide box now numbered C348/.
The list describing the individual slide 50 is pasted to the inside lid of box C348/:
"Map Lower Palace"
There is no relation between this list and the slide found in slot 50 of box C348/.

Publication: Same image published in 'Science Photo Library', and captioned: "Page 204 and engraving XIV by John Frere in Archaeologia 13, 1800. In June of 1797 Frere wrote to the Society of Antiquaries describing that, in the same month, he had observed men digging clearly man-made implements from a Hoxne brick-clay pit. They were found, he reported, below a stratum containing "some extraordinary bones, particularly a jaw bone of enormous size, of some unknown animal". It led him to conjecture that these "weapons of war, fabricated by a people who had not use of metals" belonged to "a very remote period indeed; even beyond that of the present world". His observations were published in the society's journal (this image). They were forgotten until 1859 when the archaeologist John Evans rediscovered the handaxes while making the case for the antiquity of man based on findings in France. The axes are in the British Museum today. Mary Leakey is a descendant of Frere." [https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/150773/view/1797-first-handaxe-john-frere-of-hoxne-1, JD 12/01/2026]

Bibliographical Reference: No. 5 R. G. West and C. M. B. McBurney. The Quaternary Deposits at Hoxne, Suffolk, and their Archaeology. [https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/89188BFA175AED8CA0FD77E96342954F/S0079497X00017655a.pdf/div-class-title-the-quaternary-deposits-at-hoxne-suffolk-and-their-archaeology-div.pdf, JD 12/01/2026]