PalaeoSTAr (the Palaeolithic Stone Tool Archive) is a direct output of the AHRC-funded Digital Technologies, Acheulean Handaxes and the Social Landscapes of the Lower Palaeolithic project. The aim of this project was to address the question of whether early Neanderthal groups (also known as Homo heidelbergensis) involved in the production and development of the Acheulean stone tool culture in Middle Pleistocene Britain (~600,000–250,000 years ago) made particular types of handaxes, and whether these were used to intentionally signal their individual and collective identities. The focus on handaxes was due to these being the most iconic tool of the Lower Palaeolithic, and because other tool-types and waste products from the Lower Palaeolithic have proven to be largely unstructured, ad hoc, and limited. Handaxes, therefore, continue to be the main source of evidence for Middle Pleistocene human sociality, cognition and behaviour.

The project employed cutting edge 3D scanning technology coupled with geometric morphometric techniques, building on earlier 2D methods of analysis, to answer its key research questions. Since completion, the Digital Technologies project has shown evidence of several chronologically distinct technological traditions present throughout the Lower Palaeolithic occupation of Britain, as well as highlighted important advances in bifacial technology that may be linked to behavioural developments, such as symbolic verbal communication—i.e. language. You can find examples of articles resulting from the project, as well as other studies conducted using the resources held in the PalaeoSTAr database, on the Publications page.

While initially a repository for several thousand digital models of Acheulean handaxes produced by the Digital Technologies project, our intention is that PalaeoSTAr will host digital models produced by future research projects, encompassing all Palaeolithic periods, and will eventually become a key source for collaborative studies of lithic technology across Europe and beyond.