Editing Hand axe (section)

{{Short description|Stone tool}}
{{About|the prehistoric tool|the modern one-hand light axe|Hatchet|other uses of the term ovate|ovate (disambiguation)}}
[[File:Handaxe by John Frere.png|thumb|The first published picture of a hand axe, drawn by John Frere in the year 1800.]]
[[File:Flint hand axe.JPG|thumb|right|Flint hand axe found in [[Winchester]]]]
A '''hand axe''' (or '''handaxe''' or ''' [[Acheulean]] hand axe''') is a [[Prehistory|prehistoric]] [[stone tool]] with two faces that is the longest-used [[tool]] in [[human history]].<ref name=":0">{{cite journal | doi=10.1002/evan.21467 | title=The acheulean handaxe: More like a bird's song than a beatles' tune? | year=2016 | last1=Corbey | first1=Raymond | last2=Jagich | first2=Adam | last3=Vaesen | first3=Krist | last4=Collard | first4=Mark | journal=Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews | volume=25 | issue=1 | pages=6–19 | pmid=26800014 | pmc=5066817 }}</ref> It is made from stone, usually [[flint]] or [[chert]] that has been "reduced" and shaped from a larger piece by [[knapping]], or hitting against another stone. They are 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]]''.<ref>The evolution of Neolithic and Chalcolithic woodworking tools and the intensification of human production: axes, adzes and chisels from the southern Levant. Ran Barkai. Stone axe studies III, 39-54, 2011.</ref>

Their technical name ('''biface''') comes from the fact that the archetypical model is a generally bifacial (with two wide sides or faces) and [[almond]]-shaped (amygdaloidal) [[lithic flake]]. Hand axes tend to be [[Symmetry|symmetrical]] along their longitudinal [[Symmetry axis|axis]] and formed by pressure or percussion. The most common hand axes have a pointed end and rounded base, which gives them their characteristic almond shape, and both faces have been [[Knapping|knapped]] to remove the natural [[Cortex (archaeology)|cortex]], at least partially. Hand axes are a type of the somewhat wider biface group of two-faced tools or weapons.

Hand axes were the first prehistoric tools to be recognized as such: the first published representation of a hand axe was drawn by [[John Frere]] and appeared in a British publication in 1800.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Frere|first= John|year=1800|title=Account of Flint Weapons Discovered at Hoxne in Suffolk|journal=Archaeologia|publisher=Society of Antiquaries of London|volume=13|pages=204–205|doi=10.1017/s0261340900024267|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1428700}}</ref> Until that time, their origins were thought to be natural or supernatural. They were called ''[[Thunderstone (folklore)|thunderstones]]'', because popular tradition held that they had fallen from the sky during storms or were formed inside the earth by a [[lightning strike]] and then appeared at the surface. They are used in some rural areas as an [[amulet]] to protect against storms.

Handaxes are generally thought to have been primarily used as cutting tools,<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{cite journal |last1=Key |first1=Alastair J. M. |last2=Lycett |first2=Stephen J. |title=Influence of Handaxe Size and Shape on Cutting Efficiency: A Large-Scale Experiment and Morphometric Analysis |journal=Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory |date=June 2017 |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=514–541 |doi=10.1007/s10816-016-9276-0 |s2cid=254609180 |url=https://kar.kent.ac.uk/54006/1/Key%20Lycett%202017.pdf }}</ref> with the wide base serving as an [[ergonomic]] area for the hand to grip the tool,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wynn |first1=Thomas |last2=Gowlett |first2=John |title=The handaxe reconsidered |journal=Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews |date=January 2018 |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=21–29 |doi=10.1002/evan.21552 |pmid=29446559 |s2cid=3678641 |doi-access=free }}</ref> though other uses, such as throwing weapons and use as social and sexual signaling have been proposed.<ref name=":0" />{{toclimit|3}}