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Product Description
SEE MORE NEANDERTHAL MOUSTERIAN TOOLS
Normally, biface hand axes are not designed to be used as other tools but this is a very different hand axe from typical Neanderthal Mousterian hand axes. It was flaked out of creamy golden flint to have a very thin cross-sectional profile. This allowed its edges to be used in cutting tasks. One side has been deliberately flaked in three distinct severe strikes to create an undulating saw (denticulate) cutting edge. This is an extremely unusual and innovatively intelligent! design With this one tool, you could have all you need to butcher hunted game animals - a way to chop and separate hide and flesh from bone, as well as saw tendon and ligaments. Whereas, multiple flake tools would be needed in addition to a hand axe, every needed purpose was contained in this one concept. Found in the Dordogne region of France, considered to the be the capital of Prehistory, this INGENIOUS Neanderthal design hand axe combination tool was flaked between 160,000 and 40,000 years ago.
With spectacular flaking and workmanship, this Mousterian SUB TRIANGULAR biface hand axe possesses exceptional Neanderthal workmanship with expert bifacial flaking. In addition to the unique multi-purpose tool design, a flake was removed where the thumb falls, adding to the effectiveness of a sure grip. The beautiful, naturally glossy soil sheen patina from ground minerals during millennia of burial, highlights the superb prehistoric craftsmanship. This hand axe is an example of the emerging ingenuity of human thought in achievement and tool technology. In contrast to the larger, cruder Acheulean hand axes of earlier Homo erectus, this prehistoric prize specimen wonderfully showcases the advanced technological developments and flaking skills of the Neanderthal humans they were replaced by.
Fine quality Mousterian Neanderthal tools are rare and often move from one private collection to the next as most sites are now depleted, destroyed, built over and all are protected by law forbidding modern day digging. It is probable by simple logistics, that over time, high grade archeological tools will most definitely appreciate as collector demand continues to outpace the finite supply circulating among collectors that buy pieces and never resell. Investment aside, no Paleolithic collection should be without representative tools of one of the most famous primitive humans in history!
Unlike their much larger predecessors of the Sahara during the Acheulean, Mousterian hand axes are much smaller in comparison. Not only are Mousterian hand axes considered some of the rarest and most prized tools of the Neanderthals, this exquisite representation is a perfectly executed example. The entire surface features a naturally lustrous soil sheen and a warm gold hue to the flint. Authenticity is evidenced by the presence of minerals deep in hinge fractures and microscopic crevices.
