Hand Axe, Man’s Oldest Tool

     The hand axe’s history is long and complex.  This article will provide a fairly brief but hopefully informative history from origin to present.  An in depth look at the attributes of the hand axe will explain why it has been so important to man.

     The oldest hand axe found by archaeologists comes from the early Paleolithic period.  These axes were simple stones that had one or more sides that were sharp and no attached handle.  Technically, a true hand axe has no handle.  The earliest examples had little or no shaping by man.  The later examples showed shaping and knapping to improve the efficiency and comfort.  No other tool of man has been discovered that existed before the hand axe.  Thus, the hand axe is the longest used tool of human history.

     The hand axe was most likely used as a chopper to cut large muscle pieces from harvested game and open bones so the bone marrow could be extracted.  It may have been used to cut wood and other materials early man needed to cut.  It could have been used to dig in the dirt as well.

     The axe has been used by man for millennia.  However, its appearance in human history came much later than the hand axe.  The earliest example of an axe dates to about 6000 B.C.  The axe took a simple tool, the hand axe or wedge, and combined it with another simple tool, a handle or a lever.  Adding a handle is called hafting.  Hafting the axe increased the power and efficiency of the tool.

     The axe was developed to fell trees, cut wood, shape wood, split wood and serve as a weapon when needed.  It allowed man to make shelter, supply wood for a fire to cook and keep warm, cut up the large game he killed and a myriad of other tasks. 

     The Ice Man, discovered frozen in the Alps about 20 years ago, was dated to 5000 years ago.  It has been assumed that he was going over the Alps to relocate or to find a better hunting ground.  He got caught in a storm and was frozen which preserved him until his discovery.  A look at what he was carrying shows us what he considered essential.  His copper axe was the heaviest item he was transporting over the mountains and shows the importance he put on it.