The oldest archaeological find in Luxembourg is a Lower Palaeolithic hand-axe recovered by prospector François Schons near the surface of an alluvial terrace of the Moselle at Buschland, near Remich.

A hand-axe is a two-faced tool with approximate axial symmetry and occasional symmetrical front and back surfaces; its two faces are separated by a long cutting edge. It is made by progressively chipping off flakes from its two faces.

This almond-shaped (amygdaloidal) tool is fashioned from larger flakes of imported carmine-reddish Devonian, so-called “Taunus” quartzite sandstone – a siliceous stone found in primary rocky outcrops in the south-east of the Grand Duchy, near Sierck-les-Bains (F). Its distal end displays an old break. It illustrates the Levallois technique, which is characteristic for the Mindel-Riss interglacial period: making implements such as choppers, chopping tools and hand-axes by gradually removing flakes from a stone core or block, thus representing the Acheulean period in our region.