Hand Axe

Artist Unidentified

Period Upper Paleolithic Period (Ancient Egyptian, 40,000-10,000 BCE)

Place of OriginDeir el-Bahari, Luxor, Egypt

DateUpper Paleolithic Period (40,000-10,000 BCE)

Dimensions4 1/2 in. (11.4 cm)

MediumChert (flint)

ClassificationUtilitarian Objects

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1906.207A

Not on View

Label TextCarefully chipped from larger pieces of flint, hand axes are among the earliest objects made in Egypt. Nomadic hunters in the Paleolithic Period used these hand-held axes as their principal tool. Pointed axes served as weapons to kill and butcher game.Published ReferencesCatalogue of a Collection of Egyptian Antiquities Brought Together and Presented to the Toledo Museum of Art by Mr. Edward Drummond Libbey, Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, 1906, p. 35, no. 207 ("silex axe heads").