Acheulean culture

Acheulean is the name given to an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture associated with early humans during the Lower Palaeolithic era across Africa and much of West Asia and Europe.

Acheulean tools are typically found with Homo erectus remains.

They are first developed out of the more primitive Oldowan technology some 1.8 million years ago, by Homo habilis.It was the dominant technology for the vast majority of human history starting more than one million years ago.

Their distinctive oval and pear-shaped handaxes have been found over a wide area and some examples attained a very high level of sophistication suggesting that the roots of human art, economy and social organization arose as a result of their development.

Although it developed in Africa, the industry is named after the type site of Saint-Acheul, now a suburb of Amiens in northern France (not to be confused with the rural commune of Saint Acheul), where some of the first examples were identified in the 19th century.

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