Handaxe typology and Lower Palaeolithic cultural development: ficrons, cleavers and two giant handaxes from Cuxton

One small test pit dug off Rochester Road, Cuxton in August 2005 produced over twenty handaxes, including two of exceptional size and quality. This volume in honour of RJ MacRae, properly known of course as Mac, provides the ideal opportunity to report briefly on the circumstances of their discovery and not only to indulge in their aesthetic qualities, but also to consider some of their wider implications. It is now clear that throughout the Lower Palaeolithic, there is a trend for handaxe shapes to become both more varied and increasingly recognisable as intentionally executed types. The Lower Palaeolithic is perhaps not, therefore, the period of stasis that is often suggested, but incorporates a trajectory of cultural, cognitive and behavioural development that is continued into, and through, the Middle Palaeolithic