'Oldest axe' was made by early Australians

[nitpicker]

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36256733

'Oldest axe' was made by early Australians

By Jonathan Webb
Science reporter, BBC News

7 hours ago

A tiny stone flake from north-western Australia is a remnant of the earliest known axe with a handle, archaeologists have claimed. The fingernail-sized sliver of basalt is ground smooth at one end and appears to date from 44 to 49,000 years ago. This is not long after humans first settled Australia - and several thousand years earlier than previous, similar ground-stone discoveries. The findings appear in the journal Australian Archaeology.
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Archaeologists have deduced that they were usually attached to a handle to form a tool much like a hatchet. Such implements are often associated with the development of agriculture but ancient examples from Australia vastly pre-date agriculture anywhere in the world - and this latest fragment is even a good 10,000 years older than similar finds in the far north of the continent.

It suggests an adaptation to a new environment by the very first Australians, according to the research team who discovered it. "We know that they didn't have axes where they came from," said Prof Sue O'Connor from the Australian National University. "There's no axes in the islands to our north. They arrived in Australia and innovated axes."

Prof O'Connor first dug the fragment up in the 1990s, along with many other objects and samples, from a rock shelter called Carpenter's Gap in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It was only when she and her colleagues were studying that haul in more detail in 2014 that they discovered the tiny piece of polished stone. Closer analysis suggested it could be a chip hewn off the blade of a stone axe as it was re-sharpened.
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[Judi Lynn]

1. Great report, nitpicker. Thank you. Everytime the threshhold is pushed back, it's wonderful. n/t