Acheulean Culture

The Acheulean stone tool “culture” refers to the suite of typological characteristics associated with the stone tool technology of the later part of the Lower Paleolithic or Early Stone Age. In terms of stone tool culture chronology, the Acheulean culture immediately follows the Oldowan culture in Africa, and contemporary industries that possibly existed elsewhere in the world, and precedes the Middle Paleolithic or Middle Stone Age. The range of dates associated with the Acheulean is the subject of some controversy, although the general consensus is that it began around 1.6 my and ended around 200 ky.

The Acheulean was distributed throughout the tropical and temperate zones of the Old World. Acheulean sites are found over most of Africa (with the possible exception of tropical forested regions), range into the Near East and India, and extend into Northern and Western Europe. The earliest occurrences of the Acheulean culture are seen in the Rift Valley of East Africa. The Acheulean was present in the Near East and India certainly no later than 1 my and perhaps as early as 1.4 my. The Acheulean appeared in Europe no later than 800 ky. Until recently, hand axes were not thought to be present in Southeast Asia, which was thought to be divided from Europe and the Near East by the so-called Movius Line, named for Harvard prehistorian Hallam Movius. Recent discoveries in Southeast Asia have called this conventional understanding into question. It appears now that the Acheulean may have been present in Southeast Asia as early as 800 ky, depending on how the Acheulean is defined.

The Acheulean culture ranged remarkably widely in terms of both geography and chronology. It therefore likely represents the product of a substantial diversity of hominids, including Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis, and Homo sapiens. Much of this, of course, is dependent upon how hominid phylogeny is arranged.