Hand axe
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A hand axe is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history. It is made from stone, usually flint or chert that has been "reduced" and shaped from a larger pie
Flint hand axe found in Norfolk, England
Acheulean hand axes from Kent. The types shown are (clockwise from top) chordate, ficron and ovate.
Typical Acheulean hand axe
Examples of ovate handaxes from the Boxgrove site in England
Homo erectus
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Homo erectus is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, spanning nearly 2 million years. It is the first human species to evolve a humanlike body plan and gait, to leave Africa and c
Hand axe
…characteristic of the lower Acheulean and middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) periods, roughly 1.6 million years ago to about 100,000 years ago, and used by Homo erectus and other early humans, but rarely by Homo sapiens. Their technical name (biface) comes from the fact that the archetypical model is a generally bifacial…
Java Man holotype
In 1868, Ernst Haeckel suggested early humans dispersed from the now-disproven hypothetical continent "Lemuria".
Artistic depiction of a group of Homo erectus georgicus, based on early hominin discoveries from Dmanisi.
H. e. georgicus (above) represents one of the earliest dispersals out of Africa about 1.8 million years ago.