Chopping tool
Multipurpose tool
Lower Palaeolithic
In Europe, 800 000 to 300 000 years
These tools are common in Pre-Acheulean civilizations. In Ethiopia, they appear in the oldest layers of the Lower Omo Valley and at Hadar.
J. Chavaillon, A Leroi-Gourhan, Dictionnaire de la préhistoire. P.U.F, Paris, 1994
Commentary :
A chopping tool is made from a pebble, and has a retouched edge on both surfaces.
It retains the symmetrical and well-balanced structure of the transformed pebble. Due to the ease with which it can be held in the hand, its symmetrical cutting edge, and its sometimes elongated shape, a chopping tool is well adapted to scavenging animal carcasses, and procuring the plant resources, that played a major role in hominid subsistence activities. This tool is present throughout the Lower Palaeolithic, in Africa and Europe.