This large handaxe was produced by the Acheulian culture of 400,000 years ago, during the Lower Palaeolithic period. It was found in Furze Platt, Berkshire, Britain in 1919.
It is one of the largest Handaxes ever found in Europe and considered too bulky to be useful, and therefore considered to have been a Neanderthal status symbol.
Handaxe
A handaxe is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history. It is characteristic of the lower Acheulean and middle Palaeolithic periods.
The most common hand axes have a pointed end and rounded base, which gives them their distinctive shape, and both faces have been knapped to remove the natural cortex, at least partly.
Hand axes were the first prehistoric tools to be recognized as such and were used to butcher animals, to dig, to chop wood, to hunt and to defend or attack.
Acheulean
Acheulean culture describes the archaeological period of stone tool manufacture characterized by distinctive oval and pear-shaped “hand-axes” associated with Homo erectus and derived species.
Acheulean tools were produced during the Lower Palaeolithic era across Africa and much of West Asia, South Asia, and Europe, and are typically found with Homo erectus remains.
In Europe and Western Asia, early Neanderthals adopted Acheulean technology.
Great Handaxe from Furze Platt
- Title: Great Handaxe from Furze Platt
- Date: 400,000 years ago
- Culture: Acheulean
- Found: 1919 – Furze Platt, Berkshire, Britain
- Dimensions: L: 30.6 cm; W: 2.8 kg
- Museum: Natural History Museum, London
Hand Axe
A Tour of the Natural History Museum, London
- Blue Whale
- Captain Robert Scott’s Emperor Penguin Egg
- Joseph Banks’ Herbarium Sheet from Cook’s First Voyage to Australia
- Gogotte
- Great Handaxe from Furze Platt
- Iguanodon Teeth
- Stegosaurus Stenops
- Dodo
The Story of Prehistoric Cleavers
A Tour of Natural History Museums
- Natural History Museum, London
- American Museum of Natural History, New York
- National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.
- Shanghai Natural History Museum
- National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo
Stone Tool Technology
A Tour of Science and Technology Museums
- Science Museum, London
- Queensland Museum & Science Centre
- National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo
- ArtScience Museum, Singapore
- Shanghai Science and Technology Museum
- Great Lakes Science Center, Cleveland
- Intrepid, Sea, Air & Space Museum, New York
- National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC
- National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo
Oldest Known Stone Tools
A Tour of Maritime Museums
- Australian National Maritime Museum
- New Zealand Maritime Museum
- Queensland Maritime Museum
- WA Maritime Museum
- WA Shipwrecks Museum
- Intrepid, Sea, Air & Space Museum, New York
- USS Cod
~~~
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
– Albert Einstein
~~~
Photo Credit: 1) JOM
Popular this Week
Sponsor your Favorite Page SEARCH Search for: Search Follow UsJoin – The JOM Membership Program
Sponsor a Masterpiece with YOUR NAME CHOICE for $5
Share this:
- Tweet
