When less is more: risk, reward and optimisation in Acheulean handaxe manufacture and the impact of skill

This paper describes the methods and materials used by the author to reproduce flint handaxes of late Acheulian ‐ Mousterian of Acheulian Tradition type, using flaking tools and techniques available to palaeolithic man. Stages in the manufacture of handaxes are defined first subjectively then quantitatively by counting and weighing waste flakes in the order of their removal. Two main observations emerge from these experiments, both relevant to palaeolithic studies. One is the very large number of waste flakes and chips produced in making finely finished flint handaxes. The other is that it is possible to define stages in handaxe manufacture from a study of the waste flakes alone.

Clactonian and Acheulian Industries in Britain—their chronology and significance: The Henry Stopes Memorial Lecture 1974

Acheulian shortcuts: Cumulative culture and the use of handaxes as cores for the production of predetermined blanks

This paper examines the debate over whether Acheulean handaxe shape results from the intentional imposition of a priorly held mental template upon the lithic material substrate or, alternatively, whether a knapper's intentions related to shape ‘emerge’ through the engagement (in action) of human agency and material affordances. We suggest that imposition of form and emergence of form are not mutually exclusive, and use Lave and Wenger's concept of ‘communities of practice’ to knit these opposed views together to explain the consolidation of homogenous handaxe shape at Boxgrove,c. 500,000 years ago. Here we propose that the consistency in handaxe shape found at sites like Boxgrove is a consequence of the emergent actions of individual knappers being simultaneously constrained by the imposition of social norms. Social norms are referred to in action and are negotiated, understood, and adhered to at the wider group level. Therefore, we propose that contextualizing Acheulean handaxe manufacture within its wider social context will show that handaxe shape was both imposed and emergent, not one or the other.

Journeys in space and time. Assessing the link between Acheulean handaxes and genetic explanations

The handaxe reloaded: A morphometric reassessment of Acheulian and Middle Paleolithic handaxes

First discovery of a bone handaxe in China

Handaxes in South Africa: Two case studies in the early and later Acheulean