This flint handaxe is from Norfolk County in East Anglia, England. It likely dates to the Mousterian (Middle Palaeolithic) period, ca. 41,000-59,000 BP.

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The Acheulean period ended by about 300,000 BP in Europe, replaced by technologies focussed on prepared cores and made by Neanderthals and modern humans like us, but bifacial handaxes remained a persistent element of later European toolkits.  Notable among these are the well-made bifacial handaxes of the ‘Mousterian of Acheulean Tradition’, dating to ca. 50,000 BP and associated with the Neanderthal occupation of Europe.  These handaxes are relatively small, well-made, and are triangular, sub-triangular, or cordate (almond- or heart-shaped).  Bout coupé handaxes—cordiform in shape but with a straight or slightly excurvate butt—are considered the hallmark of Britain’s recolonisation by Neanderthals, ca. 41,000-59,000 BP.