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Product Description
This is a rare MODE 1 OLDOWAN PEBBLE CHOPPER AXE possessing all traits that make it a classic reference museum specimen. Made by Homo erectus, not only fits in the hand comfortably, it has a masterfully made chisel end flaked by several obvious opposing strikes. The broad cutting edge would be ideal to chop wood, or meat, tendon and bone when butchering large hunted game. An ideal hand axe for butchering large hunted game of the time such as prehistoric giraffe, bison or elephants. Supreme and INTELLIGENT workmanship throughout. The grip incorporates a naturally flat end of the original cobble stone, intelligently taking advantage of the surface which made for a very comfortable grip, cushioning the blows of the axe into the palm when in use. Workmanship and form on this specimen demonstrates a textbook reference example of Oldowan Pebble tool technology.
A unique and colorful feature of this pebble chopper is an unusual blood red vein of color running through the stone, oriented to fall on the chopping edge. This can be seen in the above photos. Was this intentional when flaked by a primitive human, or a trait that was an aesthetic prized feature of this tool? It would be impossible to know but it is plainly visible and would have made this pebble chopper axe stand out from ordinary color basalt examples.
The entire surface of this pebble axe has a naturally glossy finish due to long-term desert exposure. This type of patina gloss is called "desert varnish". It is a thin mineral coating (generally iron and manganese oxides and silica) deposited on pebbles and rocks on the surface of desert regions when exposed for hundreds of thousands of years. Studies indicate that the coating is derived from the surrounding rock and earth materials. Wind abrasion removes the softer salts and polishes the patina to a glossy finish.
African pebble tools are not common on the market compared to their much later Acheulian relatives. This specimen is part of a very limited collection we acquired. Despite the fact that there are probably more Oldowan tools in Africa compared to the European specimens we offer, very few African pebble tools are collected or available for public acquisition. This offering poses a rare opportunity to own an AUTHENTIC example of the first known tool type made by humans - a window into the mind and design thought process of our earliest ancestors.
No one can doubt the importance that pebble tools hold in the history of human development. Their very emergence in Africa nearly two million years ago 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.
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.
