Australian Aboriginal Handaxe, collected in 1865 near Millicent South Australia by early settlers. Estimated age +3,000 years old. Discarded by the original maker as the tip broke off.

Australian Aboriginal Hand Axe , Port Wakefield South Australia, collected in 1860 early settlers . Estimated age + 2500 years old

Rare Stone Axe Heads: Wahgi Valley Papua New Guinea circa early 1930s.

Before the first Australian patrol to Mt Hagen in 1933, stone axes were in daily use in the Papua New Guinea Highlands and were widely traded.

Many occurrences of hard rocks suitable for axe making were exploited, but only at a few centres was the manufacture of axes carried out on a large scale. In recent times, a group of axe factories located in the Wahgi and Jimi Valleys accounted for the bulk of production  and may stretch back 2,500 years. 

They are no longer made (being replaced with metal trade goods) and the knowledge of how to make them has essentially been lost in the face of modern cultural influences. If owned now, they are essentially used for ceremonial purposes or as visual demonstrations of wealth and family history.

These 2 specimens were collected in the early 1970's.

Acheulean Industries Bifacial Hand Axe, c.750,000 - 790,000 BCE Gesher Benot Ya'akov Israel

Provenance: Archaeological dig,Gesher Benot Ya'akov Israel

Age: (c) 750,000 to 790,000  years old

Size: 100mm in length

Condition: Excellent patina with accretions on the original face.
Maker:  Homo Erectus ( now Extinct)

Acheulian Hand Axe - (Acheulian Industries - Homo Erectus) Lower Paleolithic before 200,000 BC

Provenance: Found in a 1969 expedition and recently purchased from a private collection in the United Kingdom.
Age: 200,000 years old
Size: approx: 16cm

Condition: Excellent with wind burnish

This is by far the oldest hand made object in my collection of pre-historic tools made by a Hominid in Africa before the rise of modern hominids - us.
This handaxe is a typical African Acheulian shape, bifacial worked into a sharp cleaver point on the distal end and a worked rounded base. Continuous retouches evidenced on the edges meaning that the tool was carried for some time before discarded.  The handaxe shows a perfect typical brownish patina and wind polished surface. In mint, near perfect condition with no modern or old damage and intact.

The artefact was discovered in 1967 at Erg Belfelfoul, Algeria. Handaxes with exact site location are extremely rare. 

Acheulean (pron.: /əˈʃuːliən/; also Acheulian) (from French acheuléen, a term based on the name Saint-Acheul, a suburb of Amiens, the capital of the Somme department in Picardy, where hand-axes of this period were found in 1859), 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, South Asia, and Europe. Acheulean tools are typically found with Homo erectus remains. It is thought that they first developed out of the more primitive Oldowan technology as long ago as 1.76 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. 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.