Acheulean
Acheulean tools were a style of stone tools made and used by ancient hominids (early humans) during the Lower Palaeolithic period of the Stone Age.[1] They were made by Homo erectus,[2] Neanderthals,[3] and, later, by early Homo sapiens.[1]
Acheulean tools were the dominant technology for most of human history. They played an extremely important role in prehistory. The classic type of Acheulean tool is an oval-shaped or pear-shaped hand axe.[3]
Acheulean tool artifacts have been found in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia as far east as Kolkata, India. Acheulean tools got their name from the type site of Saint-Acheul, which is now a suburb of Amiens in northern France.[1]
Timeline
[change | change source]Scientists have found some very old Acheulean artifacts. The oldest artifact, found in Ethiopia, has been dated to around 1.95 million years ago.[2] Another, found in Kenya, is around 1.76 million years old.[4] The oldest Acheulean tools ever found in South Asia are around 1.5 million years old.[5]
Humans continued to use Acheulean tools until around 200,000 years ago.[1]
Acheulean tools were the first artifacts to show that humans lived in the ancient past.[6] John Frere first suggested this after finding two Acheulean tools in prehistoric lake deposits, along with the bones of extinct animals. He concluded that they belonged to a "very ancient period indeed, even beyond the present world".[7] However, other scholars still held a pre-Darwinian view of human evolution, and they ignored Frere's ideas until other archaeologists found Acheulean tools too.[3]
Process
[change | change source]To make Acheulean tools, early hominids began by striking a 'core' flint rock with a hard 'hammerstone' rock to break off a sharp 'flake.'[8] Next they used stone, bone,[9][10] and/or antler[11] hammers to shape the flake into a tool.
These tools were specialized for specific uses.
Importance
[change | change source]Acheulean tools were the dominant technology for most of human history. They were more sophisticated than Oldowan tools, an older stone tool industry. They had so many uses that archaeologists sometimes call them "the Swiss Army knives of the Stone Age."[12]
Acheulean tools were "a major transition in human evolution [... and] a cornerstone in the history of human technology," according to a 2016 paper.[6] They provide important evidence of Homo erectus's cognitive skills.[6] Making an Acheulean hand axe requires the brain's prefrontal cortex to have control over complex tasks and functions, including working memory.[13]
Related pages
[change | change source]References
[change | change source]- 1 2 3 4 "Acheulean industry | Tools, Timeline, Culture, & Facts | Britannica". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2025-12-05.
- 1 2 Mussi, Margherita; Skinner, Matthew M.; Melis, Rita T.; Panera, Joaquín; Rubio-Jara, Susana; Davies, Thomas W.; Geraads, Denis; Bocherens, Hervé; Briatico, Giuseppe; Le Cabec, Adeline; Hublin, Jean-Jacques (2023-11-10). "Early Homo erectus lived at high altitudes and produced both Oldowan and Acheulean tools". Science. 382 (6671): 713–718. doi:10.1126/science.add9115.
- 1 2 3 "Acheulean Industry". Museum of Stone Tools. Retrieved 2025-12-06.
- ↑ Lepre, Christopher J.; Roche, Hélène; Kent, Dennis V.; Harmand, Sonia; Quinn, Rhonda L.; Brugal, Jean-Philippe; Texier, Pierre-Jean; Lenoble, Arnaud; Feibel, Craig S. (September 2011). "An earlier origin for the Acheulian". Nature. 477 (7362): 82–85. Bibcode:2011Natur.477...82L. doi:10.1038/nature10372. PMID 21886161. S2CID 4419567.
- ↑ Pappu, Shanti; Gunnell, Yanni; Akhilesh, Kumar; Braucher, Régis; Taieb, Maurice; Demory, François; Thouveny, Nicolas (25 March 2011). "Early Pleistocene Presence of Acheulian Hominins in South India". Science. 331 (6024): 1596–1599. Bibcode:2011Sci...331.1596P. doi:10.1126/science.1200183. PMID 21436450. S2CID 206531024.
- 1 2 3 de la Torre, Ignacio (2016-07-05). "The origins of the Acheulean: past and present perspectives on a major transition in human evolution". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. 371 (1698): 20150245. doi:10.1098/rstb.2015.0245. ISSN 1471-2970. PMC 4920301. PMID 27298475.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link) - ↑ Frere, John. "Account of Flint Weapons Discovered at Hoxne in Suffolk.". Archaeologia 13 (1800): 204–205 [reprinted in Grayson (1983), 55–56, and Heizer (1962), 70–71].
- ↑ Gossa, Tegenu; Hovers, Erella (2024-09-28). "The emergence of large flake-based Acheulian technology: perspective from the highland site-complex of Melka Wakena, Ethiopia". Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. 16 (10): 172. doi:10.1007/s12520-024-02072-8. ISSN 1866-9565.
- ↑ Parfitt, Simon A.; Bello, Silvia M. (January 2024). "Bone tools, carnivore chewing and heavy percussion: assessing conflicting interpretations of Lower and Upper Palaeolithic bone assemblages". Royal Society Open Science. 11 (1). doi:10.1098/rsos.231163. ISSN 2054-5703. PMC 10762443. PMID 38179084.
- ↑ Barkai, Ran (2020-12-08). "Lower Paleolithic bone handaxes and chopsticks: Tools and symbols?". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 117 (49): 30892–30893. doi:10.1073/pnas.2016482117. ISSN 1091-6490. PMC 7733816. PMID 33109717.
- ↑ "Complex cognition shaped the Stone Age hand axe, study shows | Emory University | Atlanta GA". news.emory.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-10.
- ↑ "Exciting stone tool find in Kenya". BBC News. 2011-09-01. Retrieved 2025-12-05.
- ↑ "Complex cognition shaped the Stone Age hand axe, study shows | Emory University | Atlanta GA". news.emory.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-10.