Handaxe

A Palaeolithic, bifacial handaxxe, it is broad at the base, with the tapering broken to a top. Paleaolithic, can also be called Old Stone Age. It is considered to be dated around 500,000 to 10,000 years old. This example is a style known as Acheulean. The name is taken from the name of a site namd Saint Acheil, near Amiens in northern France, and is used to erfer to a range of Lower Paleaolithic tool-making traiditions found widely across Afro-Eurasia. The tool is a general-purpose hand-axe. A hand-axe s a complete tool used for cutting or chopping. It is bifacial, and therefore worked on both sides, with a cutting edge all the way around. Experimental work carried out on objects such as this example shows they are very effective as butchery knives.