page_title: Hand axe
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Hand axe / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: Hand axes from Boxgrove, BM Ice Age Art event, October 2011
context_page_description: A hand axe is a stone tool of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic Stone Age. It was a bifacial, similar on both sides, and held in the hand, not with a handle like a modern axe. It was held directly in the hand, perhaps wrapped in a piece of leather.
  This kind of axe is typical of the Acheulean and the Mousterian cultures, and is the longest-used tool of human history. Hand axes were certainly used for at least a million and a half years. They were made by earlier species of man, such as Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis; it was one of their most important tools. The hand axe cultures were preceded by an even older Oldowan culture of primitive stone tools in Africa. Now it is known that the first stone tools were probably made by Australopithecines. They are found in the Great Rift Valley of Africa from about 3.3 million years ago.
  New archaeological evidence from Baise, Guangxi, China shows that there were occasional hand axes in eastern Asia. However, as the reference shows, the artifacts were overwhelmingly choppers and flakes. The authors say "The stone tool assemblage shows close associations with the pebble tool industry... in South China".
context_section_description: Older hand axes were produced by direct percussion with a stone hammer and can be distinguished by their thickness and a sinuous border. Later Mousterian handaxes were produced with a soft billet of antler or wood and are much thinner, more symmetrical and have a straight border.
  An experienced flintknapper needs less than 15 minutes to produce a good quality hand axe. A simple hand axe can be made from a beach pebble in less than 3 minutes.
caption: High-quality tools recovered from Boxgrove quarry, Made c. 500,000 years ago, they are attributed to either Homo heidelbergensis or early H. neanderthalensis.
exif: {"Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "FinePix AX245w", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "PhotoScape", "Image DateTime": "2011:10:12 22:29:23", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "250", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/34", "EXIF FNumber": "18/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:10:12 22:29:23", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:10:12 22:29:23", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "51/10", "EXIF ApertureValue": "739/20", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "139/50", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "37/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3000", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1211", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "6494", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "6494", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}