Product Description
This SUPER RARE African Acheulian prehistoric stone tool is a large DISCOIDAL UNIFACIAL SCRAPER. This tool was made and used by Homo ergaster (African Homo erectus) and is an uncommonly large, SUPERB example of a flake tool from Africa, made by primitive humans over a half a million years ago! It was surface-collected from an exposed Acheulian site in the Northwestern Sahara Desert of North Africa. This Lower Paleolithic tool represents the first intelligent design type known to science that was made by primitive humans. Prior to these Saharan Acheulian tools, only crude pebble tools existed in the human fossil record.
THIS IS THE FINEST AFRICAN ACHEULIAN FLAKE SCRAPER WE HAVE OFFERED TO DATE! It would have been ideally suited to de-fleshing hides from very large hunted prey animals such as prehistoric elephants and hippos. This is type of flake tool was made from a large flake struck from an even larger tool core. Acheulian FLAKE TOOLS are much more rare in Africa than Acheulian HAND AXES. Edge photos show extreme wind erosion but secondary flaking all down the cutting edge is plainly visible. Desert patina and wind erosion is seen in the "desert varnish". Bi-color feature is typical of only authentic examples. Complete and exhibiting the finest workmanship and form! Acheulian scrapers from the Sahara are RARE and often overlooked in field collecting and rarely seen in collections.
FLAKE TOOLS from the SAHARAN ACHEULIAN are much more rare then their Saharan Acheulian HAND AXE counterparts. While handaxes are rather obvious in design and easy to therefore, recognize when collecting on a site, smaller flake tools have less obvious features at first glance and easily blend in with surrounding scrap flakes and natural stones. The vast majority of private collections lack Acheulian Saharan flake tools in comparison to handaxes from the same period. Perfect for use in butchering the large game that thrived in Northern Africa during the days of Homo ergaster.