Editing Hand axe (section)

==History and distribution==
In 1969 in the 2nd edition of ''World Prehistory'', [[Grahame Clark]] proposed an evolutionary progression of [[flint-knapping]] [[Industry (archaeology)|industries]] (also known as complexes or technocomplexes<ref name="Clarke 1978">{{Cite book|title=Analytical Archaeology|last=Clarke|first=David|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=1978|isbn=0231046308|edition=2nd|location=New York City|pages=372–373}}</ref>) in which the "dominant lithic technologies" occurred in a fixed sequence where simple [[Oldowan]] one-edged tools were replaced by these more complex [[Acheulean]] hand axes, which were then eventually replaced by the even more complex [[Mousterian]] tools made with the [[Levallois technique]].

The oldest known [[Oldowan]] tools were found in [[Gona, Ethiopia]]. These are dated to about 2.6 mya.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Semaw |first1=Sileshi |last2=Rogers |first2=Michael J. |last3=Quade |first3=Jay |last4=Renne |first4=Paul R. |last5=Butler |first5=Robert F. |last6=Dominguez-Rodrigo |first6=Manuel |last7=Stout |first7=Dietrich |last8=Hart |first8=William S |last9=Pickering |first9=Travis |last10=Simpson |first10=Scott W. |display-authors=6 |title=2.6-Million-year-old stone tools and associated bones from OGS-6 and OGS-7, Gona, Afar, Ethiopia |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |date=August 2003 |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=169–177 |doi=10.1016/S0047-2484(03)00093-9 |pmid=14529651 |bibcode=2003JHumE..45..169S }}</ref>

Early examples of hand axes date back to 1.6 mya in the later Oldowan (Mode I), called the "developed [[Oldowan]]" by [[Mary Leakey]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leakey |first1=M. D. |title=Olduvai Gorge |volume=3: Excavations in Beds I and II, 1960–1963 |date=1971 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-07723-1 }}{{pn|date=March 2024}}</ref> These hand axes became more abundant in mode II [[Acheulean]] industries that appeared in Southern Ethiopia around 1.4 mya.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Asfaw |first1=Berhane |last2=Beyene |first2=Yonas |last3=Suwa |first3=Gen |last4=Walter |first4=Robert C. |last5=White |first5=Tim D. |last6=WoldeGabriel |first6=Giday |last7=Yemane |first7=Tesfaye |title=The earliest Acheulean from Konso-Gardula |journal=Nature |date=31 December 1992 |volume=360 |issue=6406 |pages=732–735 |doi=10.1038/360732a0 |pmid=1465142 |bibcode=1992Natur.360..732A |s2cid=4341455 }}</ref> Some of the best specimens come from 1.2 mya deposits in [[Olduvai Gorge]].<ref name="FoleyLewin2003">{{cite book|last1=Foley |first1=Robert Andrew|last2=Lewin |first2=Roger|title=Principles of Human Evolution|year=2003|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-0-632-04704-8}}</ref>

By 1.8 mya early man was present in Europe.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Roach|first= John|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/07/0703_020704_georgianskull.html|title=Skull Fossil Challenges Out-of-Africa Theory|magazine=National Geographic|date=4 July 2002|access-date=16 July 2013|archive-date=2 November 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102130124/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/07/0703_020704_georgianskull.html}}</ref> Remains of their activities were excavated in Spain at sites in the Guadix-Baza basin<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Oms |first1=O. |last2=Parés |first2=J. M. |last3=Martínez-Navarro |first3=B. |last4=Agustí |first4=J. |last5=Toro |first5=I. |last6=Martínez-Fernández |first6=G. |last7=Turq |first7=A. |title=Early human occupation of Western Europe: Paleomagnetic dates for two paleolithic sites in Spain |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |date=12 September 2000 |volume=97 |issue=19 |pages=10666–10670 |doi=10.1073/pnas.180319797 |pmid=10973485 |pmc=27082 |bibcode=2000PNAS...9710666O |doi-access=free }}</ref> and near Atapuerca.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Parés |first1=Josep M. |last2=Pérez-González |first2=Alfredo |last3=Rosas |first3=Antonio |last4=Benito |first4=A. |last5=Bermúdez de Castro |first5=J. M. |last6=Carbonell |first6=E. |last7=Huguet |first7=R. |title=Matuyama-age lithic tools from the Sima del Elefante site, Atapuerca (northern Spain) |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |date=February 2006 |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=163–169 |doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2005.08.011 |pmid=16249015 |bibcode=2006JHumE..50..163P }}</ref> Most early European sites yield "mode 1" or Oldowan assemblages. The earliest Acheulean sites in Europe appear around 0.5 mya. In addition, the Acheulean tradition did not spread to Eastern Asia.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ambrose |first1=Stanley H. |title=Paleolithic Technology and Human Evolution |journal=Science |date=2 March 2001 |volume=291 |issue=5509 |pages=1748–1753 |doi=10.1126/science.1059487 |pmid=11249821 |bibcode=2001Sci...291.1748A |s2cid=6170692 }}</ref> In Europe and particularly in France and England, the oldest hand axes appear after the [[Beestonian stage|Beestonian Glaciation]]&ndash;[[Kansan Glaciation|Mindel Glaciation]], approximately 750,000 years ago, during the so-called ''[[Cromerian stage|Cromerian complex]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bourdier|first= F.|chapter=Les industries paléolithiques anté-wurmienses dans le Nord-Ouest|title=La Préhistoire française |volume=I: Les civilisations paléolithiques et mésolithiques de la France. Sous la direction de Henri de Lumley|year=1976|publisher=CNRS|location=Paris|pages=956–963}}</ref> They became more widely produced during the [[Abbevillian]] tradition.

[[File:Biface Extension.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Map showing the approximate distribution of cultures using bifaces during the Middle Pleistocene (Acheulean){{sfn|Brézillon|1985|pp=18–19}}]]

The apogee of hand axe manufacture took place in a wide area of the [[Old World]], especially during the [[Riss glaciation]], in a cultural complex that can be described as ''cosmopolitan'' and which is known as the [[Acheulean]]. The use of hand axes survived the Middle Palaeolithic in a much smaller area and were especially important during the [[Mousterian]], up to the middle of the [[Last glacial period]].

{{Quote|source={{lang|fr|Préhistoire et Technologie lithique}}, page 18<ref>{{cite book|first=Jacques|last=Tixier|author-link=Jacques Tixier|title=Préhistoire et Technologie lithique|year=1984|publisher=Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique|location=Paris|isbn=978-2-222-02718-8}}</ref>|[In Europe s]mall bifaces are found from the late Acheulean until the Aurignacian|Pierre-Jean Texier}}

Hand axes dating from the lower Palaeolithic were found on the Asian continent, on the [[Indian subcontinent]] and in the Middle East (to the south of parallel 40° N), but they were absent from the area to the east of the 90° E [[Meridian (geography)|meridian]]. [[Hallam L. Movius|Movius]] designated a border (the so-called [[Movius Line]]) between the cultures that used hand axes to the west and those that made [[chopping tool]]s and small [[Retouch (lithics)|retouched]] [[lithic flake]]s, such as were made by [[Peking Man]] and the [[Ordos culture]] in China, or their equivalents in [[Indochina]] such as the [[Hoabinhian]]. However, Movius' hypothesis was proved incorrect when many hand axes made in Palaeolithic era were found in 1978 at Hantan River, Jeongok, [[Yeoncheon County]], South Korea for the first time in East Asia. Some of them are exhibited at the Jeongok Prehistory Museum, South Korea.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220210000659|title=[Visual History of Korea] Cutting-edge Stone Age tool Jeongok-ri handaxe of Korea|publisher=[[The Korea Herald]]|date=12 February 2022|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521132631/https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220210000659|archivedate=21 May 2023|accessdate=21 May 2023|author=Hyungwon Kang}}</ref>

The Padjitanian culture from [[Java]] was traditionally thought to be the only oriental culture to manufacture hand axes.{{sfn|Brézillon|1985|pp = 18–19}} However, a site in [[Baise, Guangxi]], China shows that hand axes were made in eastern Asia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.ivpp.cas.cn/rh/rp/201303/t20130315_99730.html|title=Stone Artifacts Found from the Gonglou Site in Baise Basin, Guangxi, China|publisher=Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences|date=March 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Handbook of Radioactivity Analysis |publisher=Academic Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-12-384873-4 |editor-first=Michael F. |editor-last=L'Annunziata |page=284}} Figure 4.27.</ref>

Hand axe technology is almost unknown in Australian prehistory, although a few have been found.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dortch |first1=C. E. |last2=Glover |first2=J. E. |title=The Scaddan implement: A reanalysis of a probable Acheulian handaxe found in Western Australia |journal=Records of the Western Australian Museum |volume=10 |issue=4 |date=1983 |pages=319–334 |url=https://museum.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/THE%20SCADDAN%20IMPLEMENT,%20A%20RE-ANALYSIS%20OF%20A%20PROBABLE%20ACHEULIAN%20HANDAXE%20FOUND%20IN%20WESTERN%20AUSTRALIA.pdf }}</ref>