Hand axes in Iraq up to 1.5 million years old

Archaeologists have found more than 850 artefacts on the surface of a dried lake bed in Iraq’s Western Desert including hand axes dating to 1.5 million years ago.

The discoveries were made by a team led by Ella Egberts from the Free University of Brussels in Belgium.

“The fieldwork was a huge success,” Egberts says in a news release on the university’s website.

The team found 7 sites in a 200km² area dating to the Palaeolithic period (3.3 million to 11,700 years ago.)

Among the finds were Early Palaeolithic hand axes, probably 1.5 million years old, as well as reduction flakes from the Middle Palaeolithic. These flakes were produced by ancient humans using a stone tool manufacturing technique known as Levallois. This type of stone knapping was developed about 250,000 to 400,000 years ago.

Egbert says that the finds help explain how early humans used the resources around them in the region. The artefacts also add to a “broader understanding of human evolution and behaviour on the Arabian Peninsula”.

Few fossils of the ancient humans who lived on the Arabian Peninsula have survived, making it difficult to pin down exactly which hominin species was responsible for the stone tools found by Egbert’s team.

Homo erectus lived 2 million to 110,000 years ago and were the first early humans to migrate out of Africa. Other human species including Homo heidelbergensis and Homo ergaster have been found in Europe and possibly lived in Asia.

Egbert says that the work in Iraq went smoother than expected given the country’s war-torn recent history.

“Apart from the presence of numerous checkpoints, we were able to carry out our work without any problems. The people are friendly, and it’s actually very nice to work in Iraq. Initially, earlier last year, we did have to postpone our expedition due to a security warning. That was probably related to the war in Gaza.

“The Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage appreciates our work and encourages us to continue,” she adds.

“The next step will be to secure funding, with which I hope to reconstruct Pleistocene environmental changes and early human presence and behaviour in the Western Desert.”