An exceptionally high density of ‘giant’ handaxes has been uncovered at an archaeological site in Spain, the first such discovery outside Africa.
An international team of researchers, including Griffith University’s Dr Mathieu Duval and the University of Adelaide’s Dr Martina Demuro and Dr Lee Arnold, has performed a comprehensive study on the site, named Porto Maior, in the Miño River basin in north-west Spain.
Their findings have now been published in open-access journal Scientific Reports.
The study, led by E. Méndez-Quintas of Spain’s National Research Centre for Human Evolution (CENIEH), may suggest the coexistence of at least two different human groups in the Iberian Peninsula about 200,000 to 300,000 years ago.
The excavation of fluvial sediments at the site comprised a total of about 3700 lithic artefacts, 290 of which were used in the assemblage – primarily composed of – of Large Cutting Tools (LCTs) studied by the researchers.
Photo: Eduardo Méndez Quintas
Dating the axes

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