Blue Marble image courtesy NASA Prehistoric hand ax found on
Crete. Photograph courtesy Thomas Strasser. for National
Geographic magazine Published February 17, 2010 It wasn't
supposed to happen like this. Two years ago a team of U.S. and
Greek archaeologists were combing a gorge on the island of Crete
(map) in Greece, hoping to find tiny stone tools employed by
seafaring people who had plied nearby waters some 11,000 years
ago. Instead, in the midst of the search, Providence College
archaeologist Thomas Strasser and his team came across a
whopping surprise—a sturdy 5-inch-long (13-centimeter-long) hand
ax. Knapped from a cobble of local quartz stone, the rough-
looking tool resembled hand axes discovered in Africa and
mainland Europe and used by human ancestors until about 175,000
years ago. This stone tool technology, which could have been
useful for smashing bones and cutting flesh, had been relatively
static for over a million years. Crete has been surrounded by
vast stretches of sea for some five million