RARE LOWER PALEOLITHIC STONE ACHEULIAN KNIFE MADE BY HOMO ERGASTER (ERECTUS) *ACH267

Product Description

This RARE African Acheulian prehistoric stone tool is a UNIFACIAL KNIFE.  It was made and used by Homo ergaster (African Homo erectus) and is a classice specimen of the first use of a knife by primitive humans over a half a million years ago!  It was surface-collected from an exposed Acheulian site in the Northern Sahara Desert of North Africa.  This Lower Paleolithic tool of the Acheulian Tradition, 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.

Very seldom seen in private collections, a tool this type is rare from Africa with most Acheulian specimens collected being handaxes.  It is a type of flake tool, fashioned by a large flake struck from an even larger tool core.  The flake is then re-worked to shape and sharpen the cutting edges.  Acheulian FLAKE TOOLS are much more scarce in Africa then Acheulian HAND AXES as they are often overlooked in field collecting and therefore, rarely seen in collections.  Edge photo shows extreme wind erosion over prehistoric secondary flaking all down the cutting edges.  NO REPAIR AND NO RESTORATION. 

FLAKE TOOLS from the SAHARAN ACHEULIAN are much more rare then their Saharan Acheulian HANDAXE 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.

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