In a fascinating discovery, an international team of researchers from Spain, France, and Germany have uncovered an ancient workshop for crafting handaxes out of Obsidian. The site, located in the Awash valley in Ethiopia, dates back an astounding 1.2 million years. The team has provided a detailed report of the handaxes’ location, preservation, and age, which has been published in the esteemed journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
The epoch known as the Stone Age endured for a period of roughly 2.6 million years ago until the inception of the Bronze Age around 3,300 BCE. Scholars conventionally partition the era into three distinct periods, namely the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic ages. According to antecedent research, “knapping workshops” made their debut sometime during the Middle Pleistocene in Europe, which transpired around 774,000 to 129,000 years ago.
These workshops materialized in tandem with the advancement of tool-making as a proficiency. Individuals who obtained such a skill collaborated in workshops to fabricate sufficient quantities of whatever tools were necessitated by the locals. One of the primary tools crafted was the handaxe, which could function as both a cutting tool and a weapon.
The production of handaxes was achieved by flaking off small pieces of stone to create a sharp cutting edge. These implements were not affixed to any other object and were held directly in the hand during use. The stones utilized for the purpose were predominantly flint or, in more recent eras, a distinctive form of volcanic glass known as obsidian. The toughness of obsidian made it a formidable challenge to work with, even in present-day times. Nevertheless, the researchers have now uncovered evidence of an obsidian handaxe knapping workshop that was established significantly earlier than any previously discovered site of its kind.
The scientists were conducting research at the Melka Kunture excavation site when they stumbled upon a handaxe that was deeply embedded within a sediment layer. Following this discovery, they uncovered a plethora of additional handaxes – 578 in total. Of these, all but three were fashioned from obsidian. The material surrounding the handaxes suggests that they were crafted approximately 1.2 million years ago.
A close examination of the handaxes revealed that they were all fashioned in a similar fashion. This suggests that the team of researchers uncovered an ancient knapping workshop – the oldest known example of its kind, and the first not to be found within Europe. The researchers, however, were unable to identify the hominids responsible for crafting the handaxes, as the work took place so long ago.
The study was published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution (2023).
