Researchers Discover Fragment of World’s Oldest Axe Made of Rock in Australia, Stunned to Find Its Actual Origin

Archeologists have uncovered what they believe to be a fragment of the world's oldest axe from Australia. The piece was unearthed in the early 1990s from the remote Kimberley region, stated The University of Sydney. The fragment has been observed to be the size of a thumbnail, and after examination was determined as 45,000 to 49,000 years old. The next oldest ground-edge axe specimen in the custody of archeologists is at least ten millennia younger. Findings regarding the fragment have been published in Australian Archaeology.

Experts believe that fragment is an example of the expertise displayed by early Australians. "Since there are no known axes in Southeast Asia during the Ice Age, this discovery shows us that when humans arrived in Australia they began to experiment with new technologies, inventing ways to exploit the resources they encountered in the new Australian landscape," University of Sydney's Professor Peter Hiscock and lead author explained.

The fragment was unearthed by Professor Sue O'Connor from the Australian National University (ANU) at Carpenter's Gap in the early 1990s. Carpenter's Gap has been identified as one of the earliest sites of settlement by modern humans. She found them beside things like food scraps, tools, artwork, and other artifacts. "Nowhere else in the world do you get axes at this date. In Japan, such axes appeared about 35,000 years ago. But in most countries in the world they arrived with agriculture 10,000 years ago," Professor O’Connor stated.

As per researchers, the tool was likely developed by humans after they stepped foot in the region and saw the resources in front of them. "We know that they didn't have axes where they came from. There are no axes in the islands to our north. They arrived in Australia and innovated axes,"  Professor O'Connor added.

Initially, archeologists did not identify the fragment. It was in 2014 when items collected from the site were re-examined when they connected the piece to a polished stone-age axe. Analysis unveiled that the original axe had been carved from basalt, and later polished through grinding on another rock. Researchers believe that the fragment came out when the axe was being re-sharpened.

For decades, archeologists have been trying to determine the origin of stone axes, because of their crucial contribution to human civilization. "Polished stone axes were crucial tools in hunter-gatherer societies and were once the defining characteristic of the Neolithic phase of human life. But when were axes invented? This question has been pursued for decades, since archeologists discovered that in Australia axes were older than in many other places. Now we have a discovery that appears to answer the question," explained Professor Hiscock.  

Based on the areas where Stone Age axes were uncovered, experts believe that humans used the tool keeping in mind the surface and environment in front of them. "Although humans spread across Australia, axe technology did not spread with them. Axes were only made in the tropical north, perhaps suggesting two different colonizing groups or that the technology was abandoned as people spread into desert and sub-topical woodlands," Professor Hiscock said. "These differences between northern Australia, where axes were always used, and southern Australia, where they were not, originated around the time of colonization and persisted until the last few thousand years when axes began to be made in most southern parts of mainland Australia."

Professor John Shea, a stone tool expert, believes more evidence is required before concluding that the fragment belongs to the oldest stone axe in the world, as per BBC. "The evidence is essentially one flake - one piece of stone out of hundreds and hundreds that they've excavated from this rock shelter site," he shared. "They would make a stronger case if they could show that similar chips with edge abrasion occurred at a greater number of sites."