91Èȱ¬

I like to think that the maker started out shaping a tool, then when the chips broke off in a pattern and boredom set in, did he/she go-with-the-flow and end up with a rock doodle?
I'm an artist, and I'm also an expert at prevarication, daydreaming and doodling and I recognise a kindred spirit here. Empathy effortlessly spanned 500,000 years in a second when I found it in my hand. It looks unfinished, did the maker spot his wife coming (Oh bugger!) and not wanting to be caught out wasting time, chuck it away? I found it when I saw a tiny part sticking out of a cliff (west of Menez Drégan (Brittany). Homo Erectus lived here continuously from 500,000 to 300,000 years ago and so far about 25,000 of his crude stone tools have emerged from this area. Walking this stretch of beach for 10 years I notice now the shapes which don't seem to conform to the norm. I have never come across anything like this. The patterns largely follow the paths of the hard, thin, natural lines in the stone, but not always. The smooth, unworked, bulgy end fits nicely in the hand ...Or is it just a geological freak? If it is, I shall feel like I've lost a distant relative!