EP Gallery: Middle Acheulian -- Olorgesailie, Olduvai Gorge, Near East, Abbevillian (c. 1.0 MYA to 500,000 BP) / l)oldvbonehebp24

Comment: As at Olorgesailie, the handaxe and cleaver are predominate bifaces at Olduvai Gorge Middle Acheulian sites. Bed IV sites are dated 600-800,000 BP. Why would one flake a handaxe in bone? Especially if there is plenty of stone around the site? I take this as another instance that at least some so-called 'handaxes' were made for symbolic reasons.

From Bed IV HEB and LLK respectively: "Fragments of elephant limb bone shafts flaked to pointed ends. In the first specimen the butt is also flaked so that it resembles a handaxe."

Photo John Reader © Leakey, M. (1994). Olduvai Gorge, Vol. 5. Cambridge: At the University Press: pl. 24.