What was the Acheulean hand AXE used for?
Acheulean stone tools have been found over much of the Old World, from southern Africa to northern Europe and to the Indian sub-continent. Studies of surface-wear patterns reveal hand axes were used to butcher and skin game, dig in soil, and cut wood or other plant materials.
Which species is associated with Acheulean hand-axes?
Homo erectus
Acheulean (/əˈʃuːliən/; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French acheuléen after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by distinctive oval and pear-shaped “hand-axes” associated with Homo erectus and derived species such as Homo heidelbergensis.
What are Acheulean hand-axes made of?
Acheulean handaxes from the site of Boxgrove, England, which dates to about 500 Ka. The handaxes are made of flint and are between 12 and 14.5 cm in length.
How do Acheulean tools differ from oldowan ones?
The Acheulean tools are more complex than the Oldowan tools in that the core was prepared before flaking took place and tools were produced that had bifacial cutting edges. Bifacial tools are flaked on both sides so that they are sharper than Oldowan tools.
What is the Acheulean tradition?
The name “Acheulean” (ash-you-LEE-un) is taken from the name of a site named Saint-Acheul, near Amiens in northern France, and is used to refer to a range of Lower Paleolithic tool-making traditions found widely across Afro-Eurasia. The typical tool is a general-purpose hand-ax.
Which species of hominin made Acheulean tools?
Acheulean stone tools are the products of Homo erectus, a closer ancestor to modern humans.
Which stage of evolution is associated with Acheulean tools?
The Chelles-Acheul was associated with the ‘Pithecanthropus stage’ of human evolution [33], while the pre-Chelles-Acheul industrial period was attributed to Australopithecus [34].
What was the most likely purpose of the Acheulean industry hand axes?
Acheulean handaxes were multi-purpose tools used in a variety of tasks. Studies of surface-wear patterns reveal the uses of the handaxe included the butchering and skinning of game, digging in soil, and cutting wood or other plant materials.
How are cleavers similar to handaxes and axes?
Cleavers resemble hand axes in that they are large and oblong or U-shaped tools meant to be held in the hand. But, unlike hand axes, they have a wide, straight cutting edge running at right angles to the axis of the tool. Acheulean cleavers resemble handaxes but with the pointed end truncated away.
What kind of tools did the acheulians use?
The Acheulian stone tools are often referred to as bifaces. These are shaped stone pieces which had some utilitarian function in the day-to-day life of the hominin groups at that time. It includes the stone tool types such as hand-axe, cleaver, scraper, knife, chopper, etc.
What was the innovation of the Acheulean handaxe?
The primary innovation associated with Acheulean hand-axes is that the stone was worked symmetrically and on both sides. For the latter reason, handaxes are, along with cleavers, bifacially worked tools that could be manufactured from the large flakes themselves or from prepared cores.
What kind of axe do you use for clam Shucker?
An Acheulian hand axe would be perfect in all respects. It makes an ideal clam shucker. The same tool, if it has a clean edge and a slim tip, can be used with a different technique. It requires a little more speed and accuracy but saves you having to spit out bits of crushed shell from the notch.