A preliminary assessment of large cutting tool production at the acheulean site of penhill farm, Lower Sundays River Valley, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

The lower Sundays River Valley in the Eastern Cape Province is an important palaeolandscape in South Africa, with three newly published sites providing crucial data for understanding the southern African Acheulean and the regional Eastern Cape Earlier Stone Age sequence. One of these sites, Penhill Farm, provides an extremely large and well-preserved assemblage within an alluvial terrace bordering the current river channel. The archaeological assemblage here has already been briefly introduced, but technological data for these artefacts have not yet been provided. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to provide a preliminary investigation of the large cutting tools (LCTs, namely handaxes, cleavers, picks, and bifaces) from Penhill Farm, dating to <1.37 ± 0.16 Ma. By investigating the morphology of LCTs, through basic dimensions and size ratios in combination with technological production strategies looking at scar counts, location, coverage, and residual cortex preservation, data are provided that help to characterise the archaeology of Penhill Farm. Overall trends in the production of LCTs include: variable size and shape, with production focused on flake blanks; bifacial shaping across large portions of individual LCTs, although the majority retain some cortex and thus shaping is still limited; a preference for generalised convergent tips.