A nine-year-old named Ben Witten found a shiny stone at Shoreham Beach in 2021, but a recent trip to a museum led him to discover that he's actually had a Neanderthal hand ax on display in his bedroom for the past three years.
Worthing Museum/FacebookThe Neanderthal hand ax next to a coin for comparison.
A nine-year-old boy named Ben Witten was recently visiting Worthing Museum in southern England when he spotted something familiar sitting in a Stone Age exhibit: a prehistoric hand ax that looked remarkably similar to a rock on display in his bedroom. Witten found the stone at Shoreham Beach in 2021 and brought it home with him because it was so different from the small pebbles he usually saw there.
Ben and his mother decided to email photos of the “shiny flint rock” from the beach to the curator of archaeology at the museum — who informed them that it was actually a Neanderthal hand ax. Now, the artifact is on display at Worthing Museum right alongside the axes that inspired Ben to ask questions about his own discovery.
A Nine-Year-Old Boy Finds A Neanderthal Hand Ax On Shoreham Beach
In 2021, when Ben Witten was six years old, he and his family visited Shoreham Beach in Sussex, England. As he told the BBC, “I was looking around and I saw this shiny flint rock. I just thought it looked different to all the other different pebbles and stones.”
Ben took the rock home with him and kept it in his bedroom for three years, where he kept “losing it and finding it.” However, until his recent trip to Worthing Museum, he didn’t think it was anything more than a simple beach stone.
Paul Gillett/Wikimedia CommonsShoreham Beach in Sussex, England, where Ben Witten found the 40,000-year-old hand ax.
After seeing the other axes on display in the Stone Age exhibit, Ben and his mother, Emma, decided to email photos of the rock to James Sainsbury, the museum’s curator of archaeology. Sainsbury wasn’t expecting much when he opened the message — but he was stunned by what he saw.
Ben’s beach find was a hand ax created by Neanderthals 40,000 to 60,000 years ago during the Middle Paleolithic era. It showed “very little sign of wear,” and according to a Facebook post by Worthing Museum, it’s “so rare that most qualified archaeologists would never find one themselves.”
Tens of thousands of years ago, the water would have been much farther from the current shore. Because the ax was found above the high tide line, experts aren’t sure if the Neanderthal who used the tool left it in that spot or if it was dumped there as offshore deposits were dredged onto land to prevent erosion.
Regardless of how the ax got to the beach, Ben has agreed to lend the prehistoric artifact to the museum so others can admire his discovery, too.
The Prehistoric Hand Ax Goes On Display
Ben wasn’t initially certain about handing the ax over to Worthing Museum. “I did want to keep it,” he told the BBC. However, after he met with Sainsbury, he realized how important the artifact was.
Worthing Museum/FacebookBen Witten and James Sainsbury, the curator of archaeology at Worthing Museum, with the prehistoric hand ax.
“They said it’s their best find in 10 years,” said Ben. “Now it’s in a case in the museum. I was really excited, my heart was beating really fast.”
Emma Witten shares in her son’s excitement. “Seeing how it lit up the face of the archaeologist at the museum, it’s great that others can enjoy it,” she told the BBC.
The hand ax will be on display to the public until at least February, at which point Ben can reclaim it if he chooses. Sainsbury hopes that the young boy’s story will inspire other amateur archaeologists to keep an eye out for unexpected discoveries and report any finds they make to the proper authorities.
After reading about the Neanderthal hand ax found by a nine-year-old boy in England, go inside the stories of nine of the oldest structures on Earth. Then, read about the Lovers of Valdaro, the Stone Age couple locked in an eternal embrace in an Italian tomb.
