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3 years earlier, a then-6-year-old kid called Ben found an unusual rock on a beach in Sussex, England. He took it home, however then misplaced it. Now, the things has actually been determined for what it actually is: a 50,000-year-old Neanderthal hand ax.

When James Sainsburymanager of archaeology and social history at Worthing Theatres and Museum, got an e-mail from Ben’s mom about her child’s discover, he didn’t anticipate the challenge be anything unique, Sainsbury informed Live Science.

“I get emails like this all the time, especially about beach finds, and they’re usually just pebbles that look funny,” he stated. “But as soon as I saw the photo, I thought, ‘That’s an Upper Paleolithic Neanderthal hand ax.’ It’s an absolutely incredible find.”

Neanderthal hand axes are reasonably little and dark two-sided flints, that makes them identifiable, according to Sainsbury. They’re plainly unique from the Middle or Lower Paleolithic finds in Sussex. Neanderthals utilized these tools for activities such as breaking bones to draw out the marrow.

Related: 65,000-year-old hearth in Gibraltar might have been a Neanderthal ‘glue factory,’research study discovers

Sainsbury particularly determined the artifact as a Mousterian hand ax, implying “it’s from that very late Neanderthal period when their days were really numbered in Europe and Britain.” He included that some scholars even recommend that Mousterian hand axes were made by the last Neanderthal generations because location.

“As far as Sussex is concerned, it’s really quite rare,” Sainsbury stated. “In our museum, we have one example and one only. They’re extremely rare because presumably the Neanderthal population density was very low.”

On Nov. 24, Ben and his household brought the artifact to the Worthing Museum, where Sainsbury verified that it was, in reality, a Neanderthal ax. Due to the fact that of how “fresh” and intact it looks, he thinks the artifact had actually been buried securely undersea for the majority of its history.

“It’s very unlikely it would have made it onto shore, at that height on the beach, without it being damaged,” he described. “So I think it was brought in with tons of shingles to increase the beach defenses either from the English Channel, where it would have been dredged from an old riverbed that’s now submerged, or from the North Sea, in the area of Doggerland.”

Doggerland is a now-submerged area underneath the North Sea that was occupied by ancient individuals before the land was flooded by increasing water level about 8,000 years earlier. Sainsbury and his colleagues are still examining when the last batch of pebbles was transferred on Shoreham beach.

“Ben is 9 now and really knew his stuff — his Bronze Age from his Iron Age from his Romans,” Sainsbury stated. “He clearly has a real interest in archaeology.”

Ben lent the hand ax to Worthing Theatres and Museum, and Sainsbury had it on screen simply an hour after consulting with Ben’s household. It will stay there till February, and the manager enjoyed to report that it has actually currently been drawing in more visitors than typical.

Margherita is a trilingual freelance author concentrating on science and history writing with a specific interest in archaeology, palaeontology, astronomy and human habits. She made her bachelor’s degree from Boston College in English literature, ancient history and French, and her journalism MA from L’École Du Journalisme de Nice in International New Media Journalism. In addition to Live Science, her bylines consist of Smithsonian Magazine, Discovery Magazine, BBC Travel, Atlas Obscura and more.

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