Stone tool industry dominated by handaxes.

(after St. Acheul, France) Period of early prehistory based on the finding of specific tool types from 1.4 million to around 100,000 years ago.

A Lower Palaeolithic culture characterised by two-faced tools with round cutting edges and, in Europe, falling between the Abbevillian and Mousterian periods (in Europe) represented by the use of soft hammerstones in hand-axe production; (in Africa) the period represented by every stage of hand-axe development.