The first true hafted axes are known from the Mesolithic period (ca. 6000 BC), where axes made from antler were used that continued to be utilized in the Neolithic in some areas. Chopping tools made from flint were hafted as adzes. Axes made from ground stone are known since the Neolithic.

Who invented the first axe?

A tiny stone fragment from north-western Australia is a remnant of the earliest known axe with a handle, archaeologists have claimed. The fingernail-sized sliver of basalt is ground smooth at one end and appears to date from 44 to 49,000 years ago.

When did humans invent the axe?

Early humans were using stone hand axes as far back as 1.8 million years ago. Credit: Pierre-Jean Texier, National Center of Scientific Research, France. Homo erectus appeared about 2 million years ago, and ranged across Asia and Africa before hitting a possible evolutionary dead-end, about 70,000 years ago.