Modern axe invented in Australia nearly 50,000 years ago: scientists

Aussie scientists have revealed the axe was invented in Australia after a fragment of a ground-edge axe, the world's oldest known, was found at the remote north-western region of the continent.

The discovery of a fragment of polished hafted axe - meaning it was made with a handle attached - is 10,000 years older than the previous known fragments found in Australia, suggesting the development coincided with humans first arriving nearly 50,000 years ago.

"Since there are no known axes in Southeast Asia during the Ice Age, this discovery shows that when humans arrived in Australia, they began to experiment with new technologies, inventing ways to exploit the resources they encountered in the new Australian landscape," the study's lead author, Professor Peter Hiscock from the University of Sydney said in a statement on Wednesday.

The fragment was discovered in during an excavation in Western Australia state's remote Kimberley region in the 1990s among a sequence of food scraps, tools, artworks and other artefacts at a location known to be one of the first sites occupied by modern humans.

As studies were being carried out on the objects, Hiscock's team found the axe fragment among artefacts from the oldest levels of the site, concluding it had been shaped from basalt and then polished by grinding it on another rock until it was smooth. Its believed the fragment was left behind as the axe was most likely carried away to be used elsewhere.

Polished stone axes were crucial tools in hunter-gatherer societies and were once the defining characteristic of the Neolithic phase of human life, however where they were invented had archaeologists scratching their heads for decades, Hiscock said.

"Now we have a discovery that appears to answer the question," Hiscock said.

Lead archaeologist and finder of the fragment, Professor Sue O'Connor from the Australian National University (ANU), said there is now where else in the world polished axe fragments can be dated to between 45,000 to 49,000 years ago, with the closest being Japan about 35,000 years ago.

"In most countries in the world, they arrive with agriculture after 10,000 years ago," O'Connor said.

It's believed the technology arose as the first humans adapted to their surroundings, but it now only adds further questions to the spread of humans across Australia.

"Axes were only made in the tropical north, perhaps suggesting two different colonizing groups or that the technology was abandoned as people spread into the desert and sub-tropical woodlands," Hiscock said. Endit