Acheulean

American  

[uh-shoo-lee-uhn] / əˈʃu li ən /

Or Acheulian

adjective

1. of, relating to, or typical of a Lower Paleolithic culture of the middle Pleistocene Epoch, characterized by large hand axes and cleavers made by the soft hammer technique.

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Etymology

Origin of Acheulean

1890–95; < French acheuléen, named after St. Acheul, N France (Somme) (where remains were found) + -éen, variant of -ien (< Latin -iānus -ian ), originally with nouns ending in -é

Example Sentences

The area documents early Acheulean stone tool industries, shifting animal communities linked to climate change, and multiple phases of hominin presence over hundreds of thousands of years.

From Science Daily • Feb. 7, 2026

“There were probably long periods of experimentation moving from Acheulean to the Middle Stone Age,” she said.

From Washington Post • Mar. 15, 2018

Even though H. erectus in East Africa had invented hand axes, part of the so-called Acheulean toolkit, by 1.76 million years ago, none have been found here at Dmanisi.

From Science Magazine • Nov. 22, 2016

The earliest dated Acheulean is about 1.75 million years ago from southern Ethiopia and from Lake Turkana in Kenya.

From Scientific American • Aug. 19, 2015

Lower Acheulean shows little variation, but with Upper Acheulean certain animals indicating a colder climate make their appearance, including the mammoth, Elephas primigenius, and the woolly rhinoceros, R. tichorhinus, but no reindeer.

From Man, Past and Present by Haddon, Alfred Court