Hand Axe
Specifications
- Type
- Edged Tool / Weapon
- Origin
- Africa / Eurasia
- Era
- Lower Paleolithic, c. 1.7 million years ago
- Notable Users
- Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis
- Epoch
- Ancient Age
History
The Acheulean hand axe is one of the longest-used tool designs in human history, persisting largely unchanged for over a million years. Teardrop-shaped and bifacially knapped from flint, obsidian, or quartzite, it served as an all-purpose cutting, chopping, and scraping tool. In combat, the hand axe's sharp edges could inflict devastating lacerations. Its balanced weight made it effective both as a melee weapon and a thrown projectile.
Significance
The hand axe is the first standardized weapon. The same teardrop shape appears across Africa, Europe, and Asia, separated by thousands of miles and tens of thousands of years. Something about this design just worked, and nothing improved on it for over a million years.
54 Weapons. Five Epochs. One Poster.
The Hand Axe is one of 9 weapons from the Ancient Age featured on the poster.
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