Chopper (archaeology)

Archaeologists define a chopper as a pebble tool with an irregular cutting edge formed through the
removal of flakes from one side of a stone.
Choppers are crude forms of stone tool and are found in industries as early as the Lower
Palaeolithic from around 2.5 million years ago. These earliest known specimens were found in
the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania by Louis Leakey in the 1930s. The name Oldowan was given to the
tools after the site in which they were excavated. These types of tools were used an estimated time
range of 2.5 to 1.2 million years ago.[1]

Hand axe
A hand axe is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history. It
is usually composed of flint orchert. It is characteristic of the lower Acheulean and
middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) periods. Its technical name (biface) comes from the fact that the
archetypical model is a generally bifacial Lithic flake with an almond-shaped (amygdaloidal)
morphology. Hand axes tend to be symmetrical along their longitudinal axis and formed by pressure
or percussion. The most common hand axes have a pointed end and rounded base, which gives
them their characteristic shape, and both faces have been knapped to remove the natural cortex, at
least partially. Hand axes are a type of the somewhat wider biface group of two-faced tools or
weapons.

Hammerstone
In archaeology, a hammerstone is a hard cobble used to strike off lithic flakes from a lump of tool
stone during the process of lithic reduction.[1] The hammerstone is a rather universal stone tool which
appeared early in most regions of the world including Europe,India[2] and North America. This
technology was of major importance to prehistoric cultures before the age of metalworking.

Flake tool
In archaeology a flake tool is a type of stone tool that was used during the Stone Age that was
created by striking a flake from a prepared stone core. People during prehistoric times often
preferred these flake tools as compared to other tools because these tools were often easily made,
could be made to be extremely sharp and could easily be repaired. Flake tools could be sharpened
by retouch to create scrapers or burins. These tools were either made by flaking off small particles of
flint or by breaking off a large piece and using that as a tool itself. These tools were able to be made
by this "chipping" away effect due to the natural characteristic of stone. Stone is able to break apart
when struck near the edge. Flake tools are created through flint knapping, a process of producing
stone tools using lithic reduction. Lithic reduction is the removal of a lithic flake from a larger stone in
order to reach the desired tool shape and size. The beginning stone is called the flake lithic core.
There are three steps to lithic reduction:
1. Hard hammer percussion is the first step. It involves knocking off the larger flakes to achieve
the desired lithic core for the flake tool. In using hard hammer percussion the flake tools
were made by taking metaphoric or igneous rock such as granite or quartz and striking it
against the stone. This method was often used to flake large core flakes of hard rock.

Bhimbetka rock shelters

The rock shelters and caves of Bhimbetka have a large number of paintings. The oldest paintings
are considered to be 30,000 years old, but some of the geometric figures date to as recently as
the medieval period. The colors used are vegetable colors which have endured through time
because the drawings were generally made deep inside a niche or on inner walls. The drawings and
paintings can be classified under seven different periods.
Period I - (Upper Paleolithic): These are linear representations, in green and dark red, of huge
figures of animals such as bison, tigersand rhinoceroses.