Handaxes: what for?
For nearly the whole of the prehistoric period of hominid existence - more than a million years - the commonest stone artifact was the so-called "handaxe." A handaxe was a large stone chipped into an almond shape, with a sharp edge not only at the point, but also all round, so that it would have been awkward and dangerous to use as a hand-held cutting tool.
Although this idea has not yet gained general acceptance, it seems to us likely that what we call "handaxes" were actually missiles. Unlike a hafted spear or an arrow, these missiles would not have penetrated deep into the target, but they could have inflicted more serious external injuries than a naturally occurring stone.
Experiments by athletes expert at discus-throwing, organized by Eileen O'Brien, have shown that the hand axe also had some interesting aerodynamic properties:
The hand axe demonstrated a propensity to land on edge when thrown overhand or discus-style, a tendency to land point first, and a potential for distant and accurate impact. Its overall shape minimizes the effects of resistance while in flight, as well as at impact. This is not true of an unshaped stone or a spheroid, for example. And despite its sharp edge, the hand axe could be launched without a safe handhold. The only apparent limitations to the hand axe's use as a projectile weapon are the strength, coordination, and skill of the thrower.
Eileen O'Brien was a research student at the time she came up with this brilliant idea. The idea was subsequently taken up by W H Calvin, but not seriously pursued, his speciality being neuroscience. No one else seems to have seriously pursued it and there has been some active opposition (see link). But no one has thought of a better use for the handaxe. Nor has anyone else suggested any other weapon that the hominid could have had which would have been as effective.
It seems likely to us that it was indeed a specially made "throwing stone" just as the boomerang was a specially made "throwing stick". Over the immensely long period during which it was used - a period of more than a million years, during which the brain almost doubled in size - the art of making and throwing handaxes was undoubtedly gradually perfected. If an experienced hominid (with the benefit of training based on hundreds of thousands of years of experience) could throw a handaxe reliably to hit a distant target point first - and he probably could - it would have been a very dangerous weapon, though still perhaps without the penetrative power necessary to kill or disable a large animal. Once the art of hafting a smaller stone point on to a shaft had been discovered, handaxes were no longer produced.