The Acheulean Handaxe One way to classify assemblages from this period is to separate those with handaxes from those without since they are the characteristic tool of the Lower Paleolithic. Assemblages with handaxes from this period are part of the Acheulean technocomplex. They are considered ‘bifaces’, with flaking on both faces, highly symmetrical, and with relatively sharp edges. Shapes differ widely from ovals to teardrops to triangles. Their functions differed too: evidence for battering on edges suggests they cut meat and chopped bones. They may also have been ‘cores’ serving as sources of additional smaller flakes. They were like stone age Swiss Army knives. Handaxes seem to appear mostly as isolated finds and they are not often found in occupation sites. One reason: maybe if they were multitools they were carried around more frequently and lost away from campsites?