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EUROPEAN ACHEULIAN FLAKE TOOL FROM HOMO ERECTUS (FIRST HUMANS IN EUROPE) Le Grand-Pressigny - Southern Touraine, France LOWER PALEOLITHIC PERIOD (EUROPEAN ACHEULIAN): 700,000 - 250,000 years ago This very rare European Acheulian stone tool was fashioned by Homo erectus, the first humans to occupy Europe. This specimen was fashioned in the Acheulian method, the predominant tool technology of the Homo erectus people in Europe from 700,000 and 250,000 years ago. This type of tool is a European Acheulian flake tool. Fine quality European Acheulian FLAKE tools are often absent from private collections and flake tools are even more rare than handaxes. This highly rare specimen is a very unique opportunity as this type of tool will be one of a very limited number we will ever offer. Of the very limited number of specimens we have been fortunate to acquire up to this time, there will not be enough of these types to justify their sale and we will retain most all specimens for our private museum. Future acquisitions of such fine and intact European Acheulian FLAKE tools are anticipated to be very limited as these are actually more rare than bifacial handaxes from the same period. Whether they are harder to recognize when a site is collected on or just existed in fewer numbers and were not as popular a tool in the Acheulian, flake tools from this period are often absent in private collections. Because of the crudeness of the tool, sales of both fakes and simple debris flakes that were NOT used as a tool but are being sold as such, are problems to be aware of when purchasing these specimens from the Lower Paleolithic. Obvious secondary retouching from baton and direct hammer percussion is a necessary feature found on genuine specimens and can be seen in the zig-zag edge in the photo above of the tool photographed from a side view. Also, the last image shows the flakes removed with no recent scarring or white flaking and all surfaces of the tool are equally patinated with soil sheen. Such traits are missing in the false tools being passed off as Lower Paleolithic (European Acheulian) flake tools on sites such as Ebay (currently fraught with numerous fraud complaints) and uninformed dealers selling either online or at shows. This particular example is side scraper made on a heavy flake. Textbook perfect baton hammer percussion can be seen on the edges classic to the Acheulian. Entire tool was dug and so, exhibits a beautiful dark and rich soil sheen and dark gold patina. This fine specimen was fashioned by Homo erectus out of golden honey-toned flint from the well-known prehistoric site of Le Grand Pressigny in France. The Acheulian Tradition first began in Africa and there it is well-defined and most diverse when compared to other regions where it eventually spread to. HANDAXES are the most typical bifacial tool associated with this period. Different from the bifacial tools from the earlier Oldowan Period, Acheulian tools are fashioned from large flakes as opposed to using a whole cobblestone as the core. Along with handaxes, other bifacial tools that are Acheulian are CLEAVERS (large handaxes with a flat top) and PICKS (robust elongated, trihedral tools). Other stone implements found at Acheulian sites include smaller flake tools. The first hominids to live outside of Africa were the primitive humans Homo erectus. Around 1.8 million years, these hominids spread through south Asia keeping to the tropical zones to which they preferred. They eventually colonized temperate regions of Europe and North China less than one million years ago but never reached Australia or the Americas. Unlike the later Neanderthal species, Homo erectus avoided frozen and sub-Artic regions of the world. With the arrival of Homo erectus in Europe, stone tool technology took a step back as both Oldowan style pebble tools and later Acheulian tools are found in the habitation layers, existing after the more refined Acheulian technology was practiced in Africa. The precise date for Europe's initial human occupation is not known and human fossils before 700,000 years in Europe are too scarce to base any theory on. We know that between 700,000 and 400,000 years ago, the first handaxes were used in Europe. Debris from both occupied sites and kill sites show evidence of butchered large game animals and stone tool manufacture of both, bifacial handaxes and smaller flake tools modified from crude secondary flakes. The actual function of handaxes is debated. Some suggest they were not used as a chopping tool but for butchering game. Scientists have shown that these tools exhibit wear common to butchery uses. Other scientists have theorized they were thrown into a herd as a deadly spinning projectile. Probably the most interesting theory and one that explains why many unworn and pristine condition tools have been found abandoned is that of the tool's use not as a tool at all but as an aid to sexual attraction. Possibly, males used techniques of being able to fashion symmetrical stone axes to attract females and demonstrate they were the most capable individual for survival and support of a family. If you were a primitive human able to make a large symmetrical handaxe, this would show you were genetically superior and an excellent candidate for mating. There is much evidence that contradicts this theory but it sure is quite an interesting hypothesis. Based on the varieties of utilitarian handaxe designs, and not only obvious wear from use but actual well-thought flaking designs to best fit ones hand, there's really little doubt that these stone tools were relied upon on a daily basis for primitive man's existence. EUROPEAN ACHEULIAN FLAKE TOOLS ARE MUCH LESS COMMON IN COLLECTIONS THAN HANDAXES! 3" in length x 1.8" wide SOLD ACH-008 INCLUDES DISPLAY BOX Actual Item - One Only |
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