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A hand axe is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history. It is usually composed of flint or chert. It is characteristic of the lower Acheulean and middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) periods. Its technical name (biface) comes from the fact that the archetypical model is a generally bifacial Lithic flake with an almond-shaped (amygdaloidal) morphology. Hand axes tend to be symmetrical along their longitudinal axis and formed by pressure or percussion. The most common hand axes have a pointed end and rounded base, which gives them their characteristic shape, and both faces have been knapped to remove the natural cortex, at least partially. Hand axes are a type of the somewhat wider biface group of two-faced tools or weapons. Hand axes were the first prehistoric tools to be recognized as such: the first published representation of a hand axe was drawn by John Frere and appeared in a British publication in 1800. Up until that time their origins were thought to be natural or supernatural (they were called ''«Thunderstones»'' because popular tradition held that they had fallen from the sky during storms or were formed inside the earth by a lightning strike and then appeared at the surface; in fact they are still used in some rural areas as an amulet to protect against storms). Hand axe tools were possibly used in five ways: * 1. Butchering hunted or scavenged animals * 2. Digging for tubers, animals, water * 3. Chopping wood and removing tree bark * 4. Throwing at prey * 5. As a source for flake tools ==Terminology== Some researchers have defined four classes of hand axe: * Class I consists of large, thick hand axes reduced from cores or thick flakes; these are referred to as blanks. * Class II consists of thinned blanks. While form remains rough and uncertain, an effort has been made to reduce the thickness of the flake or core. * Class III hand axe may be either preforms or crude formalized tools, such as adzes. * Class IV includes the finer formalized tool types such as projectile points and fine bifaces. While Class IV hand axes are referred to as "formalized tools", bifaces from any stage of a lithic reduction sequence may be used as tools. (Also, other biface typologies make five divisions rather than four). The word ''«biface»'', was used for the first time in 1920 by the French antiquarian André Vayson de Pradenne.〔. Pages 441-496.〕 this term co-exists with the more popular ''«hand axe»'' (''«coup de poing»''), which was coined by Louis Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet much earlier, The continued use of the word biface by François Bordes and Lionel Balout and their scientific authority has maintained the use of the word biface in France and Spain where it has replaced the term hand axe. Use of the expression hand axe has continued in English as the equivalent of the French biface (bifaz in Spanish), while biface is used more generally for any piece that has been carved on both sides by the removal of shallow or deep flakes. The expression faustkeil is used in German that can be literally translated as hand axe, although in a stricter sense it means «fist wedge». It is the same in Dutch where the expression used is 'vuistbijl' which literally means «fist axe» and the same occurs in other languages. However, the general impression of these tools has been too rigid as the first definitions of hand axes were based on ''ideal pieces'' (or ''classic'') that were of such perfect shape that they caught the attention of non-experts. Over time, a deepening knowledge of their typology has resulted in a broadening of the term's meaning, so there is now a distinction between a biface hand axe and a bifacial lithic item. In fact, according to today's definitions a hand axe is not always a bifacial item and there are many bifacial items that are not hand axes at all. Hand axes and bifacial items are not exclusive to the Lower Palaeolithic period in the Old World, they appear throughout the world and in many different prehistorical epochs, without necessarily implying an ancient origin. In fact, lithic typology has long ceased to be a reliable chronological reference and it has been abandoned as a dating system. Examples of this include the «quasi-bifaces» that sometimes appear in strata from the Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian periods in France and Spain, the crude bifacial pieces of the Lupemban culture (9000 B. C.) or the pyriform tools found near Sagua La Grande in Cuba. It appears that the findings at Sagua La Grande have been misinterpreted perhaps from a misunderstanding of the concept or due to contamination of the Spanish language by English. As explained above, the word ''biface'' refers to something different in English than ''biface'' in French or ''bifaz'' in Spanish, which could lead to many misunderstandings. Bifacially carved cutting tools, very similar to hand axes, were used to clear scrub vegetation throughout the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. These tools are similar to more modern adzes and were a cheaper alternative to polished axes. The modern day villages along the Sepik river in New Guinea continue to use tools that are virtually identical to hand axes to clear parts of the forest. In the opinion of Professor Luis Benito del Rey of the University of Salamanca: ''«The term "biface" should be reserved for items from before the Würm II-III interstadial»'', although he also admits that certain later objects could ''exceptionally'' be called bifaces (Benito del Rey, op. cit., 1982, page 305 and note 1). Hand axe should also not be identified with axe, which has unfortunately been somewhat over-used in lithic typology to describe a wide variety of stone tools, particularly at a time when the true use of the items being described was not understood. In the particular case of palaeolithic hand axes the term axe is an inadequate description. Lionel Balout has stated ''«the term should be rejected as a erroneous interpretation of these objects that are not "axes"»''.〔 (the quote is from page 707).〕 Subsequent studies have supported this idea, above all those examining the signs of use, as will be seen below.〔An alternative definition can be found on (Biface ) on (Diccionario de uso para descripción de objetos líticos ) by Doctor Giovanna Winchkler in Spanish.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hand axe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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