Archaeologists have discovered what they claim is the world’s “oldest ground-edge stone tool” in Northern Australia, dating back to 35,000-years-ago.
The discovery was made by an international team, led by Dr Bruno David of Monash University, at Nawarla Gabarnmang in Northern Australia, which is a large rock-shelter in Jawoyn Aboriginal country in southwestern Arnhem Land. He said that while there have been reports of much older axes being found, the implements were not ground. “This suggests that axe technology evolved into later use of grinding for the sharper, more symmetrical and maintainable edges this generates.”
“The ground-axe fragment is dated to 35,000-years-ago, which pre-dates the oldest examples of ground-edge implements from Japan and Northern Australia,” he said.
According to the archaeologists, axes fulfilled a unique position within the Aboriginal tool kit as long use life chopping tools, and were labour intensive to manufacture and highly valued. He said: “During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, axes were understood by local Aboriginal communities to carry with them the ancestral forces which characterised the particular quarry from which they came. Their trade across the landscape moved not the tool itself, but the symbolic and ancestral forces of their point of origin.”