Hand axe

A hand axe (or handaxe) is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history. It is usually made from flint or chert. It is characteristic of the lower Acheulean and middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) periods. Its technical name (biface) comes from the fact that the archetypical model is generally bifacial Lithic flake and almond-shaped (amygdaloidal). Hand axes tend to be symmetrical along their longitudinal axis and formed by pressure or percussion. The most common hand axes have a pointed end and rounded base, which gives them their characteristic shape, and both faces have been knapped to remove the natural cortex, at least partially. Hand axes are a type of the somewhat wider biface group of two-faced tools or weapons.This raises the question: why make hand axes, whose production is more complicated and costly, if the flakes can do the same work with the same efficiency? The answer could be that, in general, hand axes were not conceived for a particular function (excluding certain specialized types) , they were not made for one main task but covered a much more general purpose.The study of hand axes is made complicated because its shape is the result of a complicated chain of technical actions that are only occasionally revealed in their later stages. If this complexity of intentions during the manufacture of a hand axe is added to its variety of forms we realise that the hand axe is one of the most problematical and complex objects in Prehistorymall bifaces are found from the late Acheulean until the AurignacianHand axes are so varied that they do not actually have a single common characteristic… Despite the numerous attempts to classify hand axes, some of which date to the beginning of the century… their study does not comply completely satisfactorily to any typological listThe triangular bifaces were initially defined by Henri Breuil as flat based, globular, covered with cortex, with two straight edges that converge at an acute apical zone.Bordes later redefined the definition, making it more narrow. For Bordes a triangular biface is a piece of developed, working and balanced morphology; they are flat pieces with three rectilinear or slightly convex edges, they must be flat (m/e > 2.35) and with a short, straight base (base rounding index L/a < 2.5).Specialists distinguish small variations within these strict limits such as elongated triangular (L/m < 1.6), or pieces with slightly concave edges. Bordes named the latter «Sharks teeth» for their similarity to the fossilized teeth of Carcharodon megalodon that often appear near to the archaeological sites where these tools were found. The sub triangular bifaces, have a general form similar to a triangle but are more irregular and less symmetrical.Triangular bifaces are scarce in the Lower Palaeolithic (except in the late Acheulean in some French regions) and although they are more common during the Middle Palaeolithic (especially during the Mousterian), they virtually disappear without trace.Lanceate bifaces are the most aesthetically pleasing and became the typical image of developed Acheulean bifaces. Their name is due to their similar shape to the blade of a lance. It was coined by de Perthes (lance axe).Bordes defined a lanceate biface as elongated (L/m > 1.6) with rectilinear or slightly convex edges, acute apex and rounded base (2.75 < L/a < 3.75). They are often globular to the extent that it is not a flat surface (m/e < 2.35), at least in its basal zone.They are usually balanced and well finished, with straightened ground edges. They are highly characteristic of the latter stages of the Acheulean – or the Micoquian, as it is known – and of the Mousterian in the Acheulean Tradition (closely related to the Micoquian bifaces described below)).A biface with a lanceate profile that is more coarsely worked and irregular, possibly due to a lack of finishing it is usually called a ficron style biface from the French term.The Micoquian biface receives its name from the French cave of La Micoque in the community of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac (in the Dordogne), which also gave its name to a period at the end of the Acheulean, the Micoquien. This period is characterized by the technological development. It is thought that the Micoquien was not a separate culture from the Acheulean, but one of its final phases, and that Micoquian bifaces may be one of the few biface types that can be used as a chronological marker, a so-called index artifact. The biface is characteristic of the end of the Acheulean and was developed during the Riss-Würm interglacial.Micoquien bifaces are similar to lanceate ones, they are almond-shaped (2.75 < L/a < 3.75), elongated L/m > 1.6) and thick (m/e < 2.35) with a rounded, often unworked base, but with markedly concave edges and an acute point. Lanceate and Micoquian bifaces are usually associated. It is possible that reiterated sharpening of a lanceate biface gave rise to a Micoquian biface. They are common across the Old World.Discoid bifaces are entirely circular or oval in shape and are characterized by a base rounding index of greater than 3.75 and an elongation index of less than 1.3. They are rounded both at their base as well as at their terminal zone. If their manufactured form is shallow, they are difficult to distinguish from discoid cores of centripetal extraction, or if they are simple bifaces they look like simple flakes that have been retouched or chopping tools made from flakes.This type of biface commonly arises from the continuous resharpening of the active region of a longer biface, that over time becomes shorter. They can also be broken specimens that were recycled and reworked.Discoid bifaces cannot be used as indexes, although particularly finely worked examples appear among the Solutrean culture in Périgord.:49–55 Ovoid bifaces are roughly oval (a kind of curve whose description is slightly ambiguous, but which is more or less egg-shaped). De Perthes published a definition in 1857 that is little changed.Bordes stated that ovoid bifaces are similar to discoids but more elongated (1.3 < L/m < 1.6) and logically have a base rounding index related to the oval bifaces (greater than 3.75). Both the base and the terminal zone are rounded (if the base is short they are almost symmetrical), although the greatest width is below the longitudinal midway point.Ovoid bifaces apparently appeared in the middle of the Acheulean, although they are not index artifacts and along with the amygdaloids are the most common type of biface among the Acheulean cultures.Some authors count them as cleavers Bordes 1961, p. 63, which J. Chavaillon does not agree with; the carving technique used to create a biface is not in any way similar to the manufacturing process for cleaversA knapping so incomplete, but so careful, added to the morphology of the core, allows us to talk of a finished hand axe, that was not worked more because it was not necessary, thereby saving energy.The term leaf piece should be prefixed to leaf point, as many of them are not pointed. They have been found sporadically in a number of Mousterian sites in France, but they are most common in central European Mousterian sites and African sites from the end of the AterianArt passed through a long formative period before becoming beautiful; but this does not mean that it ever stopped being a sincere and grandiose art, sometime more sincere and grandiose than beautiful; in mankind there is a creative nature that is manifested as soon as its existence is assured. When he was not worried or fearful, this demigod acting in tranquillity, found the material in his surroundings to breathe life into his spirit.It seems difficult to admit that these beings did not experience a certain aesthetic satisfaction, they were excellent craftsmen that knew how to choose their material, repair defects, orient cracks with total precision, drawing out a form from a crude flint core that corresponded exactly to their desire. Their work was not automatic or guided by a series of actions in strict order, they were able to mobilize in each moment reflection and, of course, the pleasure of creating a beautiful object.Such is the perfection of the carving on some hand axes that they give the impression that the artist took great pleasure in them per se, at least apparently, as the working does not make the pieces any more efficient. At any rate, we are unable to pronounce from this remove whether it was art or the utility of the hand axe that was being sought by making them so well. Although, in our heart of hearts we are sure that they were searching for beauty, aesthetics, as they could have achieved the same efficiency with cruder pieces.Art is always the same, it is only possible to call someone an artist if they know how to create, within objective limits, the equivalent of the numinous complex experienced individually and expressed in a suitable manner in relation to the society in which the artist lives. In this was it is possible to distinguish an essentially artistic piece from a useful tool, although this may also be beautiful. When a prehistoric man was able to achieve the marvels that are the Acheulean axes, he did not make a work of art; nor did he make a work of art when he used his skill and experience to make a house or adapt rock shelters or caves for living or sanctuary.Very large hand axe from Furze Platt, Berkshire, Great Britain.Flint biface from Saint-Acheul, France.Acheulean flint biface from 200,000 years BP, found in Madrid (Spain).A hand axe made of Miorcani flint from the Cenomanian chalky marl layer of the Moldavian Plateau. (ca. 7.5 cm wide).A biface found in Venerque, France. A hand axe (or handaxe) is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history. It is usually made from flint or chert. It is characteristic of the lower Acheulean and middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) periods. Its technical name (biface) comes from the fact that the archetypical model is generally bifacial Lithic flake and almond-shaped (amygdaloidal). Hand axes tend to be symmetrical along their longitudinal axis and formed by pressure or percussion. The most common hand axes have a pointed end and rounded base, which gives them their characteristic shape, and both faces have been knapped to remove the natural cortex, 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 John Frere and appeared in a British publication in 1800. Until that time, their origins were thought to be natural or supernatural. They were called thunderstones, because popular tradition held that they had fallen from the sky during storms or were formed inside the earth by a lightning strike and then appeared at the surface. They are used in some rural areas as an amulet to protect against storms. Hand axe tools were possibly used to butcher animals; to dig for tubers, animals and water; to chop wood and remove tree bark; to throw at prey; and as a source for flake tools. Four classes of hand axe are: While Class 4 hand axes are referred to as 'formalized tools', bifaces from any stage of a lithic reduction sequence may be used as tools. (Other biface typologies make five divisions rather than four.) French antiquarian André Vayson de Pradenne introduced the word biface in 1920. This term co-exists with the more popular hand axe (coup de poing), that was coined by Louis Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet much earlier. The continued use of the word biface by François Bordes and Lionel Balout supported its use in France and Spain, where it replaced the term hand axe. Use of the expression hand axe has continued in English as the equivalent of the French biface (bifaz in Spanish), while biface applies more generally for any piece that has been carved on both sides by the removal of shallow or deep flakes. The expression Faustkeil is used in German; it can be literally translated as hand axe, although in a stricter sense it means 'fist wedge'. It is the same in Dutch where the expression used is vuistbijl which literally means 'fist axe'. The same locution occurs in other languages. However, the general impression of these tools were based on ideal (or classic) pieces that were of such perfect shape that they caught the attention of non-experts. Their typology broadened the term's meaning. Biface hand axe and bifacial lithic items are distinguished. A hand axe need not be a bifacial item and many bifacial items are not hand axes. Nor were hand axes and bifacial items exclusive to the Lower Palaeolithic period in the Old World. They appear throughout the world and in many different pre-historical epochs, without necessarily implying an ancient origin. Lithic typology is not a reliable chronological reference and was abandoned as a dating system. Examples of this include the 'quasi-bifaces' that sometimes appear in strata from the Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian periods in France and Spain, the crude bifacial pieces of the Lupemban culture (9000 B.C.) or the pyriform tools found near Sagua La Grande in Cuba. The word biface refers to something different in English than biface in French or bifaz in Spanish, which could lead to many misunderstandings. Bifacially carved cutting tools, similar to hand axes, were used to clear scrub vegetation throughout the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. These tools are similar to more modern adzes and were a cheaper alternative to polished axes. The modern day villages along the Sepik river in New Guinea continue to use tools that are virtually identical to hand axes to clear forest. 'The term biface should be reserved for items from before the Würm II-III interstadial', although certain later objects could exceptionally be called bifaces. Hand axe does not relate to axe, which was overused in lithic typology to describe a wide variety of stone tools. At the time the use of such items was not understood. In the particular case of Palaeolithic hand axes the term axe is an inadequate description. Lionel Balout stated, 'the term should be rejected as an erroneous interpretation of these objects that are not 'axes''. Subsequent studies supported this idea, particularly those examining the signs of use. Hand axes are mainly made of flint, but rhyolites, phonolites, quartzites and other coarse rocks were used as well. Obsidian, natural volcanic glass, shatters easily and was rarely used.