A collection of Paleolithic stone handaxes found in the Sakhnin Valley of the Lower Galilee has shed new light on the cultural and cognitive world of early humans, according to a recent study completed by researchers from Tel Aviv University.

After noticing several knapped stones scattered around the valley, Sakhnin resident Muataz Shalata brought the finds to the attention of Tel Aviv University Professor Ran Barkai, an archaeologist and expert on the topic of early Paleolithic culture.

Barkai, alongside Shalata, embarked on an archaeological expedition in the valley and discovered a series of Paleolithic sites containing hundreds of large, carefully crafted stone handaxes.

The axes were dated to the Pleistocene, likely made by Homo erectus, the first human species to evolve to have a humanlike body shape and gait, who had lived in the region hundreds of thousands of years ago.

“Handaxes served as the main tool of early humans for more than a million years,” Barkai said. “In the Sakhnin Valley, many hundreds of handaxes were found, indicating that the area served as an important hub of human activity over long periods of time.”

The Sakhnin Valley is also located near what researchers believe to have been the main route of early elephants, which would have been a primary food source for early humans and given reason for the high quantity of handaxes found. 

Aside from the quantity of handaxes found, researchers noted that the large number of axes decorated and shaped around fossils and geodes exceedes all comparable finds of similar artifacts documented to date.

Barkai also explained that Homo erectus may have been attracted to the Sakhnin Valley due to the large amount of geodes, flint, and fossils found within it.

“Early humans who came here hundreds of thousands of years ago must have been astonished by this exceptional richness of stones, leaving behind an extraordinary phenomenon,” he said, adding that more than ten handaxes “fashioned from flint nodules containing fossils or special geological formations” have been found.

These natural features were “deliberately preserved in a prominent position at the center of each handaxe” by early humans, Barkai noted.

“Since such features make precise and symmetrical knapping difficult, we can conclude that the selection of these specific stones was not accidental. On the contrary, the knapping process highlighted the natural feature and kept it at the center of the tool."

According to the researchers, the phenomena shows a higher level of “aesthetic and conceptual intention” among Homo erectus beyond the simple act of producing tools, as embedding the fossils and geodes do not add to the axe’s function.

“The unique landscape of the Sakhnin Valley led early humans to behave in a distinctive manner,” Barkai said. “The integration of fossils and geological features endowed the handaxes with added potency and meaning, connecting them to primeval elements.”

“The findings from the Sakhnin Valley open a rare window into the inner world of early humans, indicating that already at the dawn of human history they were sensitive to aesthetics, attributed meaning to nature, and had complex relationships with their world.”

The study appeared in the journal Entin Faculty of Humanities: Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University.