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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.
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 .
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 predominant tool types are large cutting tools, including cleavers, handaxes, and picks. [1] [5] [20] [21] Few knives and a low proportion of core scrapers have been reported from this level. [21] The Acheulean large cutting tools are finely made and well-refined, indicating the improvement of knapping skills from the older Lukingi layers. [2]
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.
Acheulean handaxes from Kent. The types shown are (clockwise from top) cordate, ficron, and ovate. The types shown are (clockwise from top) cordate, ficron, and ovate. In the archaeology of the Stone Age , an industry or technocomplex [ 1 ] is a typological classification of stone tools .
It follows the Acheulian and precedes the Mousterian. It is also called the Mugharan Tradition [1] or the Acheulo-Yabrudian Cultural Complex (AYCC). [2] The Acheulo-Yabrudian complex has three stone-tool traditions, chronologically: the Acheulo-Yabrudian, the Yabrudian and the Pre-Aurignacian or Amudian.
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 ...