Many years ago a student in my geology class brought me an authentic Acheulean hand axe. He seemed perfectly willing to donate it to the professor of his favorite subject—geology.
I questioned where he got it.
“My dad brought it back from a trip to South Africa, years ago.
“Well you better ask you Dad, if you can give it away,“ was my response.
“That’s not possible since “he” is no longer living with us.”
“What about your mom?”
“She was black begging anything that belonged to my dad. I picked ithi out of the dust bin, thinking you would like it” was the response.
I took possession of the hand axe with the proviso that if circumstances changed, the student must return and retrieve it.
These ancient stone tools, in a characteristic en forme de poire were first discovered in 1859 France, at Saint Acheul in the Somme River valley near Amiens, about fifty miles from the Channel. They were discovered in association with fossils of extinct animals and surmised to be the work of the ancients. They remained an enigma for many years, but finally were determined to be stone tools of our extinct human ancestors. Other examples of this type (eventually termed “Achuelean” were discovered in a wide swath of Eurasia and Africa, including sites in England, Spain , France, Africa and parts of Asia. They are sometimes found associated with human fossils identified most often as those of Homo erectus, but also with Homo heidelbergensis, and Neanderthals as well and date from 1.76 to 130,000 years ago.
I could not resist the offer and I placed the handsome artifact in a prominent place on my desk. I looked at it often, thinking of the person who must have made it so many years ago and how it may have been used. It was knapped (chipped) from a cobble of rhyolite (the fine grained equivalent of granite) perhaps some as much as 1.8 MYA. Worked on both sides, it was formed into somewhat of a pear shape. One end was somewhat rounded and the other had been percussion flaked into a sharp point. It was heavy, weighing a bit more than three 3 pounds (@1.4 kg). I wondered just how it may have been used in the lower Paleolithic by its probable Homo erectus owner.
It could have been useful as an actual ‘hand axe’ ( as it is termed). When held in one hand, the mass of the rock driven with force would generate a great deal of penetrative force at the point end. Where the force of the blow would be concentrated at the tip of the sharp end. It could easily penetrate some depth into a piece of wood. It would be “handy” if one were attempting to remove a large joint from a fallen game animal or —more likely— the temporarily abandoned carcass of a kill made by a large predator. The hand axe could easily penetrate skin and flesh and then be useful to dissociate the tendons and other tissues to dislodge a section of the carcass, suitable to carry the morsel away to a safer place for consumption. It could also be conceivably useful in digging in the soil, perhaps for roots or tubers.
The typical pear shape “hand axe” is most common and perhaps the oldest style, but smaller versions occur in the same contexts. Some are more oval in shape, while others are formed with a more pointed fore-end. The variation suggests that these stone tools may have been a form of “multi tool’. Perhaps the various “styles” pear shaped, “oval” and “pointy” are related functionally. The typical larger “hand axe” may have not only served as a actual functional too. tool but might have served as a source of sharp chips or flakes—or a “core”. These might have been chipped off the larger hand axe when the need arose, perhaps to shape a piece of wood or skin a small game animal or as a fine cutting tool for some other purpose. Eventually the large hand axe might begin to take on the shape of an “oval” hand axe and even later the “pointy variety.
I treasured this artifact for a good three or four weeks. Often thinking about the ancient fellow ( more likely than a female) who had made it and used it perhaps more than a million years ago in far off South Africa
By the end of the semester my student returned to my office. Happily for him, his family crisis had ended and his fathers had returned home.
The two million year old Achuelean hand axe, passed on again to another admirer its modern day owner. .
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