This article is about the prehistoric tool. For the modern one-hand light axe, see Hatchet. For other uses of the term ovate, see ovate (disambiguation).
The first published picture of a hand axe, drawn by John Frere in the year 1800.Flint hand axe found in Winchester
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. They are characteristic of the lower Acheulean and middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) periods, roughly 1.6 million years ago to about 100,000 years ago, and used by Homo erectus and other early humans, but rarely by Homo sapiens.[2]
Their technical name (biface) comes from the fact that the archetypical model is a generally bifacial (with two wide sides or faces) and almond-shaped (amygdaloidal) lithic flake. Hand axes tend to be symmetrical along their longitudinal axis and formed by pressure or percussion. The most common hand axes have a pointed end and rounded base, which gives them their characteristic almond shape, and both faces have been knapped to remove the natural cortex, at least partially. Hand axes are a type of the somewhat wider biface group of two-faced tools or weapons.
Hand axes were the first prehistoric tools to be recognized as such: the first published representation of a hand axe was drawn by John Frere and appeared in a British publication in 1800.[3] Until that time, their origins were thought to be natural or supernatural. They were called thunderstones, because popular tradition held that they had fallen from the sky during storms or were formed inside the earth by a lightning strike and then appeared at the surface. They are used in some rural areas as an amulet to protect against storms.
Handaxes are generally thought to have been primarily used as cutting tools,[1][4] with the wide base serving as an ergonomic area for the hand to grip the tool,[5] though other uses, such as throwing weapons and use as social and sexual signaling have been proposed.[1]
^ abcCorbey, Raymond; Jagich, Adam; Vaesen, Krist; Collard, Mark (2016). "The acheulean handaxe: More like a bird's song than a beatles' tune?". Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews. 25 (1): 6–19. doi:10.1002/evan.21467. PMC 5066817. PMID 26800014.
^The evolution of Neolithic and Chalcolithic woodworking tools and the intensification of human production: axes, adzes and chisels from the southern Levant. Ran Barkai. Stone axe studies III, 39-54, 2011.
^Frere, John (1800). "Account of Flint Weapons Discovered at Hoxne in Suffolk". Archaeologia. 13. Society of Antiquaries of London: 204–205. doi:10.1017/s0261340900024267.
^Key, Alastair J. M.; Lycett, Stephen J. (June 2017). "Influence of Handaxe Size and Shape on Cutting Efficiency: A Large-Scale Experiment and Morphometric Analysis" (PDF). Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. 24 (2): 514–541. doi:10.1007/s10816-016-9276-0. S2CID 254609180.
^Wynn, Thomas; Gowlett, John (January 2018). "The handaxe reconsidered". Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews. 27 (1): 21–29. doi:10.1002/evan.21552. PMID 29446559. S2CID 3678641.
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