Perhaps one of the most revolutionary and advantageous discoveries by ancient humans was the handaxe. The earliest Acheulean hand axes were found at the site of Konso-Gardula in Ethiopia around 1.4 million years ago. The handaxe however proceeded to evolve along with the ancient humans. By around 700,000 years ago, the Acheulean handaxes had become very standardized. A very good example of this standardization comes from Kilombe, in Kenya.
The handaxes produced at the Kilombe site were from the lower Paleolithic and were much more complicated to produce than Olduwan tools. The axes varied from roughly made to a few that were very refined and beautifully made. The axes found, through out Eastern Africa, varied in shape and size greatly, however this variance does not signify cultural differences and does not conf orm to the geographical differences. The specific use of the axes found at Kilombe has not been determined, although they are believed to have been multi-purpose tools.
The Kilombe hand axes were created using the core technique. That is, made by removing flakes from a core. Although at the same time as the production of core tools at Kilombe flake tools were still being produces as well. Core tools were the dominant forms of tools until being replaced between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago by the Middle Paleolithic industries.
Brian Fagan, “People of the Earth” Copyright 1995 by Lindberg Corp. New York, NY ampere.scale.uiuc.edu/anth102/lect28.html
Matt Rhoades