Hand-axe

[Narration]
These exhibits are hand-axes which date from the early days of the Paleolithic Age and represent the beginnings of tool development.

[Tourist]
But they look more like natural stones than axes.

[Narration]
At first glance they look like round, blunt stones, I agree. However, look carefully at the edge of the stone. Except for the handgrip part, the edge and the end of the stone are sharp. Paleolithic people used the hand-axes to skin animals and butcher carcasses into transportable chunks of meat. They were also used to dig the ground.

[Tourist]
So they were actually very useful tools.

[Narration]
Yes, they were. Although they look similar to natural stones, hand-axes were the first typical tools crafted by humans. They have been found not only in Asia but also in Africa and Europe, which indicates that they were an important tool widely used by early humans across the world.