Room of Humanity

This is a tactile object. You may touch it.

Explore this shaped stone with your hands but beware of the sharp edges. It’s a replica of a flint hand axe. It’s dark grey, flecked with white. Thanks to its teardrop shape and its handy size, the stone fits comfortably in an adult hand.

The hand axe was made by chipping shards from a piece of flint with a hammerstone, such as quartzite, or with a piece of wood, antler or bone. The maker would shape the flint into a teardrop shape with a point, sharp edges and a thicker part to be held in the hand. If you feel the surface, you can discover where the shards have been chipped off. Those areas feel very smooth, like glass. Where the stone still feels rough, nothing has been chipped off.

Can you imagine how you would use this tool to cut wood, to skin an animal or to cut meat? You can hold the stone in different ways, depending on what you want to do with it.

In the display cases in this gallery are a variety of hand axes that were found in various places. They were made between around forty and a hundred and twenty-five thousand years ago. They are made of flint or hälleflinta, a very hard type of stone.

The hand axe was the ultimate Stone Age tool. It was useful for almost any task, from slaughtering animals and woodworking to making a fire. They have existed for hundreds of thousands of years. Over time the style of the axes changed. 

This can be seen, for example, in the shape, which doesn’t always resemble a teardrop. Hand axes have also been found that are not made of flint. Poorly made examples also exist. Perhaps they were made by children who still had to learn the necessary skills. 

 

This is a scent point. Here you can smell a scent.

Here you can smell birch pitch. This is a black, sticky substance made from the bark of birch trees. In prehistoric times, Neanderthals and later on modern man used it as a glue, for example to attach flint points to the wooden shafts of spears and arrows. It smells smoky, tarry and sometimes a little sweet. This is because the bark is heated during the making of the pitch.

Hey, come a little closer. Can't have you getting cold in your bones. You've got to be fit tomorrow, keep those legs oiled. Or you can kiss the hunt goodbye. Because those mammoths can run pretty fast. If they want to. 

We desperately need your help. The sooner we catch one of these beasts, the sooner we can head south. Then we'll have enough to eat. Because there's no way we can make such a long journey on an empty stomach. 

And we've got to get out of here as soon as possible. Before it starts snowing. 

If you want to make it back home in one piece tomorrow, you’d better listen now.  

Mammoths live in herds. But only the females. And their young. Well, those males, they only drop in to cover a female and then they’re gone again. 

We’ll pick one. One that might have difficulty walking or is just that bit slower... 

Near here, in the river, is a crossing. They all use it. All the animals. 

And who will be hiding there, tomorrow? That’ll be us. And not just the men. Everyone joins in. Except for our elders and babies. They would just get in the way. 

Hunting is a group activity. 

"Hear that? No, that’s not a mammoth. It’s a stag." 

Why not hunt stags? Hmm, good question. But that's a lot of work, a lot of meat. And I prefer a lot of work and lots and lots of meat. Have you seen how many of us there are?  

OK, listen up... So, there we are, by that river. And when I give the signal, we run forward. We drive that animal into the river and then 'Thwack'. 

Sounds simple, doesn't it? But a mammoth is huge. We’ll only succeed if we all work together. Maybe. 

I'd have an early night if I were you. 

I’ll work on these for a bit… the flints.. the spearheads, I want them sharper.  

You need a really sharp spearhead to pierce through a mammoth’s hide. 

I’ll see you tomorrow. 

This is a core object. You can listen to information here. Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to touch this object.

This display case contains one of the most refined hand axes ever discovered. The teardrop-shaped piece of flint is almost twelve centimetres long, nine centimetres wide and three centimetres thick. It is similar to the example you were able to feel at the beginning of this gallery.

The hand axe is reddish brown and is symmetrical: the curvature of the stone is the same on both sides and the point is right in the middle. The edges are straight and sharp with only one very small nick. The surface is very smooth and, unlike most other hand axes, it has almost no sharp facets or rough areas. 

It is called the Anderen hand axe, named after Anderen, the place in Drenthe where it was found. It was made between forty and a hundred and twenty-five thousand years ago. It was made with great attention to beauty and symmetry.

Someone must have put a lot of effort into making this axe so perfectly. This tells us that Neanderthal people were not only concerned with survival but also had an eye for beauty. Such a special axe would have earned the respect and admiration of others.