Artifacts belonging to Middle Stone Age (Middle Paleolithic) Period which dated back to more than 150,000 years were discovered in Abu Dhabi, the largest emirate of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), local newspaper Gulf News reported Monday.

The discovery made by a team from Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ACH) included an axe and tools to crack open animal bones, the report said.

The team found a type of tool, the Levallois, one of whose functions was to split animal bones to extract the marrow which was a nutritious food resource.

"The discovered assemblage belongs to the techno-typologically Middle Stone Age Period, well over 150,000 years ago," said Dr. Ganim Wahida from Cambridge University, who was invited by ACH to study and evaluate the artifacts.

The significance of the discovery "lies in the fact that it alters our understanding of the beginning of the first human activities in Abu Dhabi Emirate which seem to have gone back well into the Old Stone Age," said Dr. Walid Yasin, manager of the archaeology division of the ACH.

This discovery complements earlier findings made last year at the same area, Yasin added.

Stone artifacts made of the Levallois technique were found in Abu Dhabi last July, whose dating was estimated to fall in the Middle Paleolithic (150,000-35,000 years ago).

The Levallois technique was first discovered in the nineteenth century at the archaeological site of Levallois near Paris.