Cleaver (tool)

Three views of a flint cleaver from Griquatown, Northern Cape Province, South Africa

Three-view diagram

In archaeology, a cleaver is a name given to a type of biface stone tool of the Lower Palaeolithic.

Cleavers are a little like hand axes. They are large and oblong or U-shaped tools meant to be held in the hand, but unlike hand axes, they have a wide, straight cutting edge running at right angles to the axis of the tool.

Acheulean cleavers resemble handaxes but with the pointed end truncated away. Flake cleavers have a cutting edge created by a tranchet flake being struck from the primary surface.

References

• T. Darvill, ed. (2003). Oxford Concise Dictionary of Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280005-1.