Fig 1.
Map of Europe showing the location of the two sites discussed here along with that of other important sites in the relevant period.
Fig 2.
Handaxes from la Noira, lower level.
Examples of the types of millstone handaxes at the lower level at la Noira: crudely-made bifacial tools (1, 2, 9, 10) bifacial tools (4), bifaces (3, 6, 7) and bifacial cleavers (8).
Fig 3.
Handaxes from la Noira, upper level.
Examples of the types of millstone and flint handaxes at the upper level at la Noira: bifaces with the bifacial upper part (1, 4), bifaces (2, 3, 7, 8) and bifacial cleavers (5, 6).
Fig 4.
Examples of two handaxes (frontal views).
Left: original photos, middle: extracted contours (numbers represent the S(Cs) values; right: reconstructed nearest symmetric shapes.
Fig 5.
Latitudinal and longitudinal permutations of a contour.
Illustration of a handaxe contour, showing how the latitudinal and longitudinal permutations are defined based on the orientation of the optimal symmetry line.
Fig 6.
Summary of symmetry for each assemblage and view (cross-section).
Note that Boxgrove handaxes are more symmetric in all views, although the difference is not large.
Fig 7.
Variation in symmetry by raw material type.
Fig 8.
Variation in symmetry by biface blank type (i.e., the flake, nodule, or slab used to fashion the handaxe).
Fig 9.
Permutation distribution for all assemblages and views.
The graph shows a clear separation between latitudinal and longitudinal handaxes according to the placement of the axis of best symmetry.
Fig 10.
Percentage of latitudinal handaxes (where the line of best symmetry is perpendicular to the longest axis) at la Noira.
Points represent averages per assemblage. Note the presence of many more latitudinal handaxes in the top view for La Noira lower level (almost 50%).
Fig 11.
Visual representation of shape variation in the handaxes from la Noira and Boxgrove (frontal view).
Fig 12.
Visual representation of shape variation in the handaxes from la Noira and Boxgrove (top view).
Fig 13.
Visual representation of shape variation in the handaxes from la Noira and Boxgrove (lateral view).