Long considered an icon of the Lower Paleolithic period (2.6 million to 250,000 years ago), the distinctive tear-drop shaped handaxe has been called the Swiss Army knife of the era. The handaxe is a biface, meaning both faces have been chipped to create a sharp, tapered edge well suited for cutting. In reality, it was probably an all-purpose tool that was used for a multitude of tasks that included cutting meat, sawing, drilling holes, digging, and other tasks.

This particular specimen was collected from the Dordogne region of southwestern France in 1930 by Professor Albert Jenks of the University of Minnesota. It was donated to the Science Museum of Minnesota in 1957 along with a small collection of other Paleolithic material collected by Dr. Jenks from the same region.

Large bifaces like this one have been found over much of Europe, Africa, and Asia; from the British Isles to southern Africa, and from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain/Portugal) to China. Recent research on such tools found in dated contexts indicates that they were used by Homo Ergaster beginning about 1.6 million years ago in Africa and the Middle East. By approximately 500,000 years ago Homo Heidelbergensis brought the technology to Europe. The most frequent occurrences of large bifaces in European assemblages were from 500,000 to 300,000 years ago, however they continued to be used through the Middle Paleolithic (ca. 200,000 to 35,000 years ago) and perhaps later. These later tools were likely made by Homo Neanderthalensis or even modern Homo Sapiens.

I chose this object simply because it is the oldest artifact curated by the Science Museum of Minnesota. While its scientific value is compromised since we do not know precisely where it was found and what it was found with, it still provides a thought-provoking connection to an ancestor of modern humans and an individual who lived perhaps a half million years ago.
– Ed Fleming, Curator of Archaeology