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A hand axe (or handaxe or Acheulean hand axe) is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history. [1] It is made from stone, usually flint or chert that has been "reduced" and shaped from a larger piece by knapping , or hitting against another stone.
This was struck from the lateral edge of the hand-axe close to the intended cutting area, resulting in the removal of a flake running along (parallel to) the blade of the axe to create a neat and very sharp working edge. This distinctive tranchet flake can be identified amongst flint-knapping debris at Acheulean sites. [citation needed]
Modern axes are specialised by use, size and form. Hafted axes with short handles designed for use with one hand are often called "hand axes" but the term "hand axe" refers to axes without handles as well. Hatchets tend to be small hafted axes often with a hammer on the back side (the poll). As an easy-to-make tool, the axe has frequently been ...
The hand axe is a fine example from about 350,000 years ago, in the Lower Paleolithic period, but its main significance lies in the role it and the circumstances of its excavation played in the emerging understanding of early human history.
Battle axe (European) Bhuj with blade shaped like the dagger on a long shaft [1] Broadaxe (European) Congolese axe [1] (African) Dahomey axe club, also an effective blunt weapon [1] (African) Danish axe, hafted axe, English long axe, Viking axe, Danish longer axe (European) Doloire (European) Fu (Chinese) Hand axe, ovate handaxe (Paleolithic ...
The Saltley handaxe is a quartzite hand axe found in the gravels of the valley of the River Rea in the Saltley area of Birmingham, England in 1890. Believed to be approximately 500,000 years old, [1] it was the first human artifact from the paleolithic era found in the English Midlands, which had previously been considered not to have been inhabited before the end of the last glacial period.
A thunderstone is a prehistoric hand axe, stone tool, or fossil which was used as an amulet to protect a person or a building. [1] The name derives from the ancient belief that the object was found at a place where lightning had struck. [2]
The abundant hand axes are characteristic of the Acheulean period, made by hominins between about 600,000 and 900,000 years ago [7] along what was then the shore of a now dried-up lake. Fossils of various animals have also been found, including those of extinct species of hippo, elephant, zebra, giraffe, and baboon, likely to have been ...