Acheulean Tools

Multi-use implements of the Lower Paleolithic

Online Biology Dictionary

Acheulean tools (hand axes) from Kent, UK.

Such tools are more sophisticated than those of the earlier Clactonian or Oldowan/Abbevillian industries, flaked not only by means of a hammer stone, but also with wood, bone, or antler shapers, which allowed greater control over the finished product. These advanced tools were shaped more symmetrically on both sides (producing a "biface").

Most paleoanthropologists think tools of this industry were typically multi-purpose implements, same tool being used for a variety of tasks, such as butchering carcasses, slicing hides, digging roots, and chopping wood.

Radiometric dating shows this particular industry lasted from around 1.65 mya (Scarre 2005, p. 110) to about 100,000 years ago (Clark 2001). The earliest tools generally accepted as examples of this type come from the region west of Lake Turkana in Kenya (Roche et al. 2003).

Quartzite biface from Atapuerca (click to enlarge)

Flint hand ax from St. Acheul (click to enlarge)

Very early Acheulean stone tools occur across most of Africa, except in rainforest regions. These tools have also been found throughout Eurasia, in more recent deposits south of the regions of Pleistocene glaciation. In Asia, they are known from Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, and southeast Asia. In Europe, they reached as far north as the Danube and, further west, are known from France, where the Acheulean industry was first recognized, as well as the lower Rhine valley and southern Britain. Further north, glaciers prevented human occupation.

Although this tool industry is most commonly associated with the names of Homo ergaster and Homo erectus, much doubt and dispute surrounds the identification of the early human specimens from the time period in question (1.65-0.1 mya). Is Homo ergaster distinct from Homo erectus? Is Homo heidelbergensis distinct from early Homo neanderthalensis? Was Homo sapiens idaltu, a user of Acheulean tools, really any different from modern Homo sapiens, usually described as using more sophisticated, better finished tools? Whatever the answers to such questions, the time period during which the Acheulean industry existed, and the type of tools it produced, is fairly well established.