Hand Axe (France)

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from National Museum of Natural History as part of Tools: Extending Our Reach.

This teardrop-shaped stone tool is from the celebrated Paleolithic site of Saint-Acheul, in northern France, which gave its name to the Acheulean technology. Though stone tools date back at least 2.6 million years, this tool is around 300,000 years old and was collected between 1883 and 1890. The handaxes discovered at Saint-Acheul in the 1850s were among the first Stone Age implements to be found. They demonstrated the existence of early humans and illustrated their tool-making techniques. While handaxes varied in size, symmetry, and the type of stone employed, the basic shape remained consistent over the Acheulean’s long time span. The handaxe here is made of flint, a material found throughout the Somme Valley, in northern France. It was made by striking flakes from a stone core with a rounded hammerstone, a process called "flint knapping." Over time, groups of early humans from different regions of the world began to produce more distinctly styled handaxes and other stone tools.

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Tools: Extending Our Reach.