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Acheulean (/ ə ˈ ʃ uː l i ə n /; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French acheuléen after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated with Homo erectus and derived species such as Homo heidelbergensis.
A hand axe (or handaxe or Acheulean hand axe) is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history. [1] It is made from stone, usually flint or chert that has been "reduced" and shaped from a larger piece by knapping , or hitting against another stone.
The Acheulean was characterised not by the core, but by the biface, the most notable form of which was the hand axe. [18] The Acheulean first appears in the archaeological record as early as 1.7 million years ago in the West Turkana area of Kenya and contemporaneously in southern Africa.
Cleavers, found in many Acheulean assemblages such as Africa, were similar in size and manner of hand axes. The differences between a hand axe and a cleaver is that a hand axe has a more pointed tip, while a cleaver will have a more transverse "bit" that consists of an untrimmed portion of the edge oriented perpendicular to the long axis of the tool.
The Chelleo-Acheulean is a Palaeolithic stone tool industry that marks a transitional stage between the Chellean (Abbevillian or Oldowan) and the Acheulean. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Louis Leakey identified eleven stages of development in the Chelleo-Acheulean "hand axe culture" in Africa .
Human tools are the most prominent of all historic items in the area. The abundant hand axes are characteristic of the Acheulean period, made by hominins between about 600,000 and 900,000 years ago [7] along what was then the shore of a now dried-up lake. Fossils of various animals have also been found, including those of extinct species of ...
In the Abbevillian, early Palaeolithic hominins used cores; in the Acheulian, flakes. Olduwan tools, however, indicate that in the earliest Palaeolithic, the distinction between flake and core is less clear. Consequently, there also is a tendency to view Abbevillian as an early phase of Acheulian.
The Sangoan is the name given by archaeologists to a Palaeolithic tool manufacturing style [1] which may have developed from the earlier Acheulian types. In addition to the Acheulian stone tools, bone and antler picks were also used. Sangoan toolkits were used especially for grubbing. [2]