LARGE EAST AFRICA RHYOLITE ACHEULEAN CLEAVER HAND AXE *ACH448

Product Description

SEE MORE LOWER PALEOLITHIC ACHEULEAN STONE TOOL ARTIFACTS

This BIFACE CLEAVER hand axe was made and used by early humans of the species Homo erectus (ergaster).  It was flaked from rhyolite between 700,000 and 30,000 years ago.  Compared to normal almond-shaped hand axes, cleaver hand axes are much more rare.  This superb, large Lower Paleolithic hand axe comes from an old French private collection and was originally surface-collected from a famous exposed Acheulean site in East Africa (full site details provided with purchase).  This Lower Paleolithic tool represents the first intelligent design type known to science that was made by primitive humans.  Prior to these Acheulian handaxes, only crude pebble and flake tools existed in the human fossil record.

This is a large MUSEUM-GRADE example of a CLEAVER Acheulean hand axe from this region.   This example shows superb flaking and execution of this form.  Tip and edges are intact and super sharp.  A flaked area was created for a thumb rest on one side. See photos.

Because of the greater difficulty in working the rhyolite volcanic stone from which it was made, axes from this reagion and material are cruder in appearance than their counterparts of the same period, found in North Africa and made of more common quartzite.  Quartzite is easier to shape compared to rhyolite so less secondary blows and a more fundamental design is always found on these hand axes of East Africa.  Almost never are Paleolithic tools offered from this part of Africa.  An absolute must for advanced collections displaying the diversity of Africa's human history and related stone tool development! 

During the time of this axe, there were large elephant and hippopotamus species as well as giraffe species in Africa that primitive humans would have hunted.  An axe like this was necessary to butcher such large kills.