Why large Flakes? Later Acheulian handaxe manufacture at Amanzi Springs, Area 2 (Eastern Cape, South Africa)

Recent studies have identified differences in handaxe reduction strategies within the Acheulian assemblages from Amanzi Springs, with operational sequences that involve a variety of giant core methods to produce large flake blanks, as well as being made directly on cobbles. Despite these different blank selection patterns, there is a general standardisation in the final morphology of handaxes from Area 2 (∼530 – <408 ka). This study uses three-dimensional geometric morphometric, descriptive statistics and diacritical analyses to explore large flake usage at the site, and its implications in handaxe morphology and manufacture. Our results demonstrate that Amanzi knappers used large flake blanks with standardised characteristics and morphologies to shortcut challenging technical aspects of handaxe production. Despite previous descriptions of handaxes being large and unstandardised in appearance, Middle Pleistocene knappers at Amanzi Springs were able to anticipate challenges of the locally available raw materials by producing a range of large flake blank morphologies to overcome knapping mishaps.