The earliest Australians invented the axe, scientist believe

RESEARCHERS say the discovery of a 48,000-year-old tool, created by early Australians, has rewritten history.

The fragments of the axes were found in the Kimberly region of Western Australia.

AUSTRALIA was the birthplace of the axe, scientists believe after identifying a nearly 50,000-year-old fragment discovered in Western Australia.

The tool was found by archaeologists in the remote Kimberley region and shows that early Australians were technological innovators and were more advanced in their use of tools than previously thought.

The thumbnail-sized fragment is dated between 44,000 and 49,000 years old, placing it among the oldest pieces of evidence showing human activity in Australia.

“Its antiquity coincides with or immediately follows the arrival of humans on the Australian landmass,” researchers said.

The small axe head was excavated along with other artefacts including food scraps and tools in the early 1990s, but was only recently singled out and dated.

The astonishing find gives fresh insight into the life of Aboriginal ancestors and was published today in the Australian Archaeology journal.

The axe is the archetypal human tool. The importance of this discovery can not be overstated.

— Mark Pesce (@mpesce) May 10, 2016

Australian National University archeologist Professor Sue O’Connor, who uncovered the tool, said it was more than 10,000 years older than any previous discovery, AAP reported.

The authors of the paper carried out experiments which showed the creators of the artefact would have needed to grind the axe on a piece of sandstone about 800 times in order to get it so smooth. They believe it answers the question of when and where the first axe was invented.

“This is the earliest evidence of a ground-edge axe yet reported in the world, and the antiquity of axe production it reveals has implications for both the dispersion of modern humans out-of-Africa and the nature of the first human occupation of Australia,” researchers wrote.

Archaeologists from The Australian National University have unearthed fragments from the edge of the world’s oldest-known axe, found in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Axe flakes from the dig.

Prof O’Connor said evidence suggested the axes were developed after people arrived in Australia around 50,000 years ago.

“We know that they didn’t have axes where they came from. There are no axes in the islands to our north,” she said.

Archaeologists have uncovered axes in Japan dated around 35,000 years ago but in most countries the axe appears to have coincided with the advent of agriculture around 10,000 years ago.

Lead author Professor Peter Hiscock from the University of Sydney said the discovery meant we must give credit to the ancestors of Aboriginal people for their ingenuity, creativity and adaptability.

“We are rewriting history here,” he told Fairfax Media.

“For decades people have talked about how unsophisticated the early technologies were and now all of a sudden we’ve got the most sophisticated stuff at the earliest date anywhere in the world.”

— With AAP

Examples of what the axes would have looked like.