Chopper (archaeology)

Archaeologists define a chopper as a pebble tool with an irregular cutting edge formed through the removal of flakes from one side of a stone.

Choppers are crude forms of stone tool and are found in industries as early as the Lower Palaeolithic from around 2.5 million years ago.

A potential stone mass found today could be classified as a chopper if it has a worn edge showing evidence of tool use.

The ancient peoples that inhabited the earth had many different stone tools to perform various activities.

Used for hacking, cutting, and chopping, choppers allowed early peoples to sever soft materials, especially meat and wood.

One of the main uses of choppers was to cut through the meat and skins of hunted animals to obtain food, hide, and fur.

Starting about 1.6 million years ago, this new technology evolution emerged, known as the Acheulean tradition.