Acheulian Giant-Core Technology A Worldwide Perspective

The ability to detach large (larger than 10 cm) flakes from giant cores and use them as blanks for the production of handaxes and cleavers is a technological hallmark distinguishing the Acheulian culture from its African predecessor, the Developed Oldowan, approximately 1.5 million years ago. Acheulian knappers applied a variety of fundamentally different, innovative, and sophisticated methods to large-flake production that were perfectly suited to the size and shape of the naturally available raw materials. Yet the end products of all these methods were astonishingly similar across the geographical and chronological distribution of the Acheulian techno-complex: large flakes that were suitable in size and morphology for the production of handaxes and cleavers.