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Product Description
As the final Wimereux flint Pebble Chopper Axe we have to offer, we have saved the best in our 25 year collection for now! This is THE finest European Lower Paleolithic Oldowan pebble axe we have ever seen or know about that was found at this famous Wimereux coastal site in Calais, France. It is a flint pebble chopper axe made in the Mode I Oldowan tool technology. The site is unique and was once a land site, now submerged due to the rising seas after the last Ice Age. The saltwater patinates the flint to gray and white hues, and unfortunately, often the Lower Paleolithic hand axes are beaten and broken from the harsh action of the marine coastal wave action. The site where it was discovered is famous for being one of the oldest Lower Paleolithic sites in West Europe, but is very small. The tools occur in a peat layer beneath an ocean bluff but the site is now buried under fallen former Nazi bunkers and eroded bluff debris and sand. Beach action and erosion caused many of the tools previously collected there to be badly damaged or eroded by the wave action. This spectacular example is the exception and of all Oldowan pebble axes, this specimen has a prominent and masterfully created sharp cleaver-like chopping edge. The proximal end has been chosen to serve as an ergonomic hand and finger grip - a highly intelligent design concept considering how well it fits in the hand.
Extreme patina on the flint surface and marine life encrustations are a testament to its advanced prehistoric age. Lack of any unsightly nicks or breakage make this a choice grade example for the finest Paleolithic human tool collections. As a complete and superbly executed intact piece, it is one of the finest possible pebble axes that the site has been known to once produce. Large pebble choppers like this were used to smash the massive bones of fauna such as mammoths, rhinos and giant deer to gain access to the nourishing marrow inside. This Lower Paleolithic chopper displays remarkably well-executed workmanship and control to have flaked the well-formed edges. For any Paleolithic tool collection, this is a must have specimen as an example like this shows features that are very difficult to find in today's market.
European Lower Paleolithic hand axes often move from one private collection to the next as many sites are now destroyed, built over, or legally protected from collecting. In the past decades, European auctions have routinely set records for the highest prices realized on spectacular examples of prehistoric European Stone Age artifacts like this. Fine specimens are so few in number while the buyer market continues to expand and chase after the best material with no apparent price ceiling in sight. Nevertheless, the prices STILL, are a paltry comparison to much of the more mature rare collectibles on the market and Paleolithic artifact prices still really don't reflect the substantially high rarity of these artifacts in comparison to other genres of rare collectibles. The actual scarce quantities of specimens like this is sobering, and as ever-increasing buyer demand continues to pursue the best pieces, we are likely to see prices easily rise ten-fold on top-grade specimens, in the near future years with rampant inflation. The words "undervalued" and "collectible" are seldom found together in today's world but the realm of European and African Paleolithic artifacts is one where you can still find an emerging market and one of the greatest promises for future investment.
WARNING: Caution should be exercised as we have seen MANY sellers offering nothing more than worthless broken beach flint cobblestones found at Wimereux, as Lower Paleolithic chopper axes. There is a huge difference in the features of how they are flaked (or broken in the cases of the misidentified examples!), if you know what to look for. Human flaked intact pebble chopper hand axes will have steep angles to the chisel-shaped flaking of the chopping end. Cobblestones by nature, will have more breaks angles more perpendicular to the axis of the cobblestone. Know your source and only deal with well-informed sellers who can help you understand the difference.
HISTORY
Oldowan pebble tools are THE FIRST recognized tools invented by the earliest of primitive humans from Africa. The Oldowan (or Mode I) was a widespread stone tool archaeological industry (style) in prehistory. These early tools were simple, usually made with one or a few flakes chipped off with another stone. Oldowan tools were used during the Lower Paleolithic period, 2.6 million years ago up until at least 1.7 million years ago, by ancient Hominins (early humans) across much of Africa. This technological industry was followed by the more sophisticated Acheulean industry. Oldowan stone tools are simply the oldest recognizable tools which have been preserved in the archaeological record. Early species of Homo such as H. habilis and H. ergaster are believed to be the primary tool makers of the industry during much of its use. Early Homo erectus appears to inherit Oldowan technology and refines it into the Acheulean industry beginning 1.7 million years ago.
The term Oldowan is taken from the site of Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where the first Oldowan stone tools were discovered by the archaeologist Louis Leakey in the 1930s. Some contemporary archaeologists and palaeoanthropologists prefer to use the term Mode 1 tools to designate pebble tool industries (including Oldowan), with Mode 2 designating bifacially worked tools (including Acheulean handaxes), Mode 3 designating prepared-core tools, and so forth.
There is a flourishing of Oldowan tools in eastern Africa, spreading to southern Africa, between 2.4 and 1.7 mya. At 1.7 mya., the first Acheulean tools appear even as Oldowan assemblages continue to be produced. Both technologies are occasionally found in the same areas, dating to the same time periods. This realization required a rethinking of old cultural sequences in which the more "advanced" Acheulean was supposed to have succeeded the Oldowan. The different traditions may have been used by different species of hominins living in the same area, or multiple techniques may have been used by an individual species in response to different circumstances.
By 1.8 mya early Homo was present in Europe, as shown by the discovery of fossil remains and Oldowan tools in Dmanisi, Georgia. Remains of their activities have also been excavated in Spain at sites in the Guadix-Baza basin and near Atapuerca. Most early European sites yield "Mode 1" or Oldowan assemblages. The earliest Acheulean sites in Europe only appear around 0.5 mya. In addition, the Acheulean tradition does not seem to spread to Eastern Asia. It is unclear from the archaeological record when the production of Oldowan technologies ended. Other tool-making traditions seem to have supplanted Oldowan technologies by 0.25 mya.
No one can doubt the importance that pebble tools hold in the history of human development. Their very emergence in Africa allowed the earliest humans to butcher animals for their meat - the needed nourishment that allowed humans to survive and flourish to one day populate and rule the earth.
