Acheulean

English

Alternative forms

• Acheulian

Etymology

From French acheuléen, from Saint-Acheul, a suburb of Amiens where the first tools from this period were found.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈ(t)ʃuːlɪən/
• Rhymes: -uːliən

Adjective

Acheulean (not comparable)

1. (archaeology) Of or pertaining to a lower Paleolithic period characterized by the presence of flaked bifacial hand axes.
   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 95:

     Assuming that language ability extends back to the hominids, we see a slow process of cultural development over millions of years, and then in the Acheulean period of Homo erectus, about three hundred thousand years ago, we find the first engraved tool.

   • 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA, published 2003, page 402:

     When early modern humans – the ones who would eventually become us – started to move out of Africa something over a hundred thousand years ago, Acheulean tools were the technology of choice.

Translations

Translations

• Italian: acheuleano (it)

Proper noun

Acheulean

1. (archaeology) A lower Paleolithic period characterized by the presence of flaked bifacial hand axes.

Translations

Translations

• Italian: acheuleano (it) m