sabbah@lemmy.world to World News@lemmy.worldEnglish · 1 year ago‘Giant’ 300,000-year-old handaxes unearthed in Kentwww.theguardian.comexternal-linkmessage-square16fedilinkarrow-up195arrow-down11cross-posted to: science@beehaw.org
arrow-up194arrow-down1external-link‘Giant’ 300,000-year-old handaxes unearthed in Kentwww.theguardian.comsabbah@lemmy.world to World News@lemmy.worldEnglish · 1 year agomessage-square16fedilinkcross-posted to: science@beehaw.org
minus-squareSCB@lemmy.worldlinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up5·edit-21 year agoMammoths only went extinct about 4,000 years ago, so realistically we should be seeing other “giant axes” if they were for processing mammoths. I’d guess they were more specialized tools for some sort of early construction, which is kind of even more crazy.
minus-squareProcurementCat@feddit.delinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up4·edit-21 year ago so realistically we should be seeing other “giant axes” if they were for processing mammoths. We do! Here are some from egypt, 500,000 years ago: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/researchers-in-museums/tag/handaxe/ The great Furze Platt handaxe is 400,000 years old and from Britain: https://joyofmuseums.com/museums/united-kingdom-museums/london-museums/natural-history-museum-london/great-handaxe-from-furze-platt/ And here are 300,000 thousand years old ones from Spain: https://theconversation.com/giant-handaxes-suggest-that-different-groups-of-early-humans-coexisted-in-ancient-europe-91977 Edit: On that note, here’s a giant handaxe where I have no doubt believing that it could be a prestige object: The giant handaxe of West-Tofts with a carefully preserved shell!
Mammoths only went extinct about 4,000 years ago, so realistically we should be seeing other “giant axes” if they were for processing mammoths.
I’d guess they were more specialized tools for some sort of early construction, which is kind of even more crazy.
We do! Here are some from egypt, 500,000 years ago: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/researchers-in-museums/tag/handaxe/
The great Furze Platt handaxe is 400,000 years old and from Britain: https://joyofmuseums.com/museums/united-kingdom-museums/london-museums/natural-history-museum-london/great-handaxe-from-furze-platt/
And here are 300,000 thousand years old ones from Spain: https://theconversation.com/giant-handaxes-suggest-that-different-groups-of-early-humans-coexisted-in-ancient-europe-91977
Edit: On that note, here’s a giant handaxe where I have no doubt believing that it could be a prestige object: The giant handaxe of West-Tofts with a carefully preserved shell!