Hand axe

A hand axe (or handaxe or <a href="/facts/Acheulean/mf49sr9c">Acheulean</a> hand axe) is a <a href="/facts/Prehistory/52D6oKM4">prehistoric</a> <a href="/facts/Stone_tool/JQxItKEm">stone tool</a> with two faces that is the longest-used <a href="/facts/Tool/KhhEHz1I">tool</a> in <a href="/facts/Human_history/uB3yXt4H">human history</a>. It is made from stone, usually <a href="/facts/Flint/RkMoXqjb">flint</a> or <a href="/facts/Chert/pmvbVy6U">chert</a> that has been "reduced" and shaped from a larger piece by <a href="/facts/Knapping/FPPEFBvs">knapping</a>, or hitting against another stone. They are characteristic of the lower <a href="/facts/Acheulean/mf49sr9c">Acheulean</a> and middle <a href="/facts/Palaeolithic/I48SMHo5">Palaeolithic</a> (<a href="/facts/Mousterian/vwWjmGas">Mousterian</a>) periods, roughly 1.6 million years ago to about 100,000 years ago, and used by <a href="/facts/Homo_erectus/5Xqv3CdP">Homo erectus</a> and other early humans, but rarely by <a href="/facts/Homo_sapiens/rlcTENsr">Homo sapiens</a>.
Their technical name (biface) comes from the fact that the archetypical model is a generally bifacial (with two wide sides or faces) and <a href="/facts/Almond/oArfgmdq">almond</a>-shaped (amygdaloidal) <a href="/facts/Lithic_flake/4RLPRpX2">lithic flake</a>. Hand axes tend to be <a href="/facts/Symmetry/hpu7DK8p">symmetrical</a> along their longitudinal <a href="/facts/Symmetry_axis/bpvJqcnS">axis</a> and formed by pressure or percussion. The most common hand axes have a pointed end and rounded base, which gives them their characteristic almond shape, and both faces have been <a href="/facts/Knapping/FPPEFBvs">knapped</a> to remove the natural <a href="/facts/Cortex_(archaeology)/YK0AwglY">cortex</a>, at least partially. Hand axes are a type of the somewhat wider biface group of two-faced tools or weapons.
Hand axes were the first prehistoric tools to be recognized as such: the first published representation of a hand axe was drawn by <a href="/facts/John_Frere/D1jxaloA">John Frere</a> and appeared in a British publication in 1800. Until that time, their origins were thought to be natural or supernatural. They were called <a href="/facts/Thunderstone_(folklore)/CuP8B09M">thunderstones</a>, because popular tradition held that they had fallen from the sky during storms or were formed inside the earth by a <a href="/facts/Lightning_strike/YFXlRMKp">lightning strike</a> and then appeared at the surface. They are used in some rural areas as an <a href="/facts/Amulet/aTApH0q5">amulet</a> to protect against storms.

Handaxes are generally thought to have been primarily used as cutting tools, with the wide base serving as an <a href="/facts/Ergonomic/prAcGtDW">ergonomic</a> area for the hand to grip the tool, though other uses, such as throwing weapons and use as social and sexual signaling have been proposed.

Hand axe open-in-new

Hand axe