Oldest known axe discovered in Australia, claim researchers

Small fragment found in cave believed to date from a tool created up to 49,000 years ago

It is about the size of a thumbnail and might look like any old piece of rock, but scientists say it is a fragment of the oldest axe ever discovered, created up to 49,000 years ago.

Found in Australia, it further undermines ideas that Europe was the birthplace of technology, revealing people developed complex tools not long after they set foot in Australia.