World's Oldest Axe Found in Malaysi

Malaysian archaeologists may have found the oldest indication of human civilization. Embedded in meteorite rocks, they found samples of hand-axes dating back to 1.8 million years.

The Stone Age axes were discovered a year ago in Lenggong, a Malaysian archaeological site.

The stone tools were found inside a suevite rock, which is formed when meteorites hit the Earth. The samples were then sent for testing at a Japanese lab.

After applying extensive track-dating methods, the Tokyo lab found them to be an astonishing 1.8 million years old. The oldest sample found so far.

[Dr. Mokhtar Saidin, Center of Archaeological Research]:
"The first time we dated the hand-axe in this region, 1.8. We found a lot of hand axes in China, in Philippines and Indonesia but without the date, you know, just the surface find. So I compared it throughout the world and what I got from Africa, the hand-axe only date 1.6 million. So at this moment, what we found is the oldest hand-axe in the world."

Dr. Mokhtar shows us more samples of Stone Age hand axes.