WHEN DID HUMANS START USING TOOLS?
7 years, 1 month ago

WHEN DID HUMANS START USING TOOLS?

Daily Mail  

It is hard for scientists to say precisely when humans started making tools because the more primitive remains look like a natural object rather than a human artefact. The Acheulean tool technology period - up to 1.76 million years ago - featured large stone hand axes made from flint and quartzite. About 50,000 years ago more refined and specialised flint tools were made and used by Neanderthals and it is believed it was at this stage tools were constructed out of bone. Cut marks have found on animal bones that have been dated to be 3.4 million years old - around the time that a squat ape-like ancestor called Australopithecus afarensis - known as Lucy - roamed Africa.

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History of this topic

Ancient humans were crafting tool kits from bone 1.5 million years ago
Trending News
3 weeks, 6 days ago

Ancient humans were crafting tool kits from bone 1.5 million years ago

ABC  

Over a million years ago, ancient human ancestors sat down to shave flakes off bones, producing a tool with a carefully created sharp edge. It was in these deeper layers, dated to about 1.5 million years ago, that the team discovered that some of the unearthed bones had small scrapes to sharpen them up as tools. While stone tools are …

Ancient humans made tools from animal bones 1.5 million years ago
3 weeks, 6 days ago

Ancient humans made tools from animal bones 1.5 million years ago

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — Early humans were regularly using animal bones to make cutting tools 1.5 million years ago. A newly discovered cache of 27 carved and sharpened bones from elephants and hippos found in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge site pushes back the date for ancient bone tool use by around 1 million years. Researchers know that early people made simple tools from …

Early humans were crafting tools from bones long before we thought
4 weeks ago

Early humans were crafting tools from bones long before we thought

India Today  

Early humans were regularly using animal bones to make cutting tools 1.5 million years ago. A newly discovered cache of 27 carved and sharpened bones from elephants and hippos found in Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge site pushes back the date for ancient bone tool use by around 1 million years. The bone tools were “probably used as a hand axe” a …

1.5 million-year-old bone tools suggest early human ancestors were capable of advanced craftsmanship
4 weeks ago

1.5 million-year-old bone tools suggest early human ancestors were capable of advanced craftsmanship

CNN  

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Louis and Mary Leakey, which discovered early human fossils … and the world’s first human stone tools ignited my fascination and fueled the dreams of countless young students, myself included, who aspired to follow in their footsteps.” The site has a timeline spanning 2 million to 20,000 years ago, and researchers have …

1.5 million-year-old bone tools suggest early human ancestors were capable of advanced craftsmanship
4 weeks ago

1.5 million-year-old bone tools suggest early human ancestors were capable of advanced craftsmanship

CNN  

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Louis and Mary Leakey, which discovered early human fossils … and the world’s first human stone tools ignited my fascination and fueled the dreams of countless young students, myself included, who aspired to follow in their footsteps.” The site has a timeline spanning 2 million to 20,000 years ago, and researchers have …

Stone Age discovery fuels mystery of who made early tools
2 years, 1 month ago

Stone Age discovery fuels mystery of who made early tools

The Hindu  

Archaeologists in Kenya have dug up some of the oldest stone tools ever found, but who used them is a mystery. But two big fossil teeth found along with the tools at the Kenyan site belong to an extinct human cousin known as Paranthropus, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. The tools date back to around …

2.9-million-year-old butchery site in Kenya suggests humans perhaps weren't first to use crafted stone tools
2 years, 1 month ago

2.9-million-year-old butchery site in Kenya suggests humans perhaps weren't first to use crafted stone tools

ABC  

Around 2.9 million years ago, an ancient hominin in East Africa butchered a hippopotamus and feasted on its pulverised flesh. Key points: Archaeologists found fossilised hacked bones of animals alongside crafted stone tools The discovery pushes back the age at which crafted stone tools were used by around 300,000 years Discovery of teeth at the site raises the question of …

Stone Age discovery fuels mystery of who made early tools
2 years, 1 month ago

Stone Age discovery fuels mystery of who made early tools

Associated Press  

NEW YORK — Archaeologists in Kenya have dug up some of the oldest stone tools ever found, but who used them is a mystery. But two big fossil teeth found along with the tools at the Kenyan site belong to an extinct human cousin known as Paranthropus, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. The tools date …

Early humans used bone tools 120,000 years ago to make clothes out of leather, fur in Morocco
3 years, 6 months ago

Early humans used bone tools 120,000 years ago to make clothes out of leather, fur in Morocco

Firstpost  

“Sewing is a behaviour that has lasted” since prehistory, said El Hajraoui.“Tools like those discovered in the cave were used for 30,000 years, which proves the emergence of collective memory.” Archaeologists in Morocco have identified clothesmaking tools fashioned from bone dating back 120,000 years, the oldest ever found, one of the researchers said. “It’s a major discovery because while older …

Stone Age hand axe site dating back 1.3 million years discovered in Morocco
3 years, 8 months ago

Stone Age hand axe site dating back 1.3 million years discovered in Morocco

ABC  

Archaeologists in Morocco have announced the discovery of North Africa's oldest hand axe manufacturing site, dating back 1.3 million years. Key points: Before the find, the Acheulian stone tool industry in Morocco was thought to date back 700,000 years The news has been called a "chronological rebound" Researchers say the study also makes it possible to identify the oldest presence …

Stone Age axe dating back 1.3 million years unearthed in Morocco
3 years, 8 months ago

Stone Age axe dating back 1.3 million years unearthed in Morocco

Al Jazeera  

Archaeologists in Morocco have announced the discovery of North Africa’s oldest Stone Age hand-axe manufacturing site, dating back 1.3 million years, an international team reported on Wednesday. The find pushes back by hundreds of thousands of years the start date in North Africa of the Acheulian stone tool industry associated with a key human ancestor, Homo erectus, researchers on the …

53 Chopping Tools Used By Humans Half a Million Years Ago Discovered
4 years, 2 months ago

53 Chopping Tools Used By Humans Half a Million Years Ago Discovered

News 18  

Israeli and Italian researchers have discovered that early humans about half a million years ago used stone chopping tools to break animal bones and consume the bone marrow, Tel Aviv University in central Israel said on Wednesday. In their study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers from TAU and the University of Rome, in collaboration with the University of …

Prehistoric humans invented stone tools multiple times, study finds
5 years, 9 months ago

Prehistoric humans invented stone tools multiple times, study finds

The Independent  

Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Get our free Climate email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Prehistoric humans invented tools on multiple occasions, according to researchers who have found a collection …

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE STONE AGE?
6 years, 6 months ago

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE STONE AGE?

Daily Mail  

The Stone Age is a period in human prehistory distinguished by the original development of stone tools that covers more than 95 per cent of human technological prehistory. It begins with the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins, ancient ancestors to humans, during the Old Stone Age - beginning around 3.3million years ago. Between roughly 400,000 and 200,000 …

Why we should stop using 'Stone Age' to describe early humans
6 years, 7 months ago

Why we should stop using 'Stone Age' to describe early humans

The Independent  

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy “Stone Age” is a term often used to refer to early …

Ancient tools in China reveal primitive humans left Africa earlier than previously thought
6 years, 8 months ago

Ancient tools in China reveal primitive humans left Africa earlier than previously thought

The Independent  

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Ancient stone tools and animal bones dating back over 2 million years suggest our ancient …

Scientists Are Amazed By Stone Age Tools They Dug Up In Kenya
7 years ago

Scientists Are Amazed By Stone Age Tools They Dug Up In Kenya

NPR  

Scientists Are Amazed By Stone Age Tools They Dug Up In Kenya Enlarge this image toggle caption Jay Reed/NPR Jay Reed/NPR Our ancestors in Kenya's Southern Rift Valley made some pretty innovative tools. toggle caption Jay Reed/NPR "I think of the hand axes as the Swiss army knife of the Stone Age," says paleoanthropologist Rick Potts, director of the Human …

Stone age tools raise questions on migration
7 years, 1 month ago

Stone age tools raise questions on migration

The Hindu  

VERY old and sophisticated tools excavated from Attirampakkam, 60 kilometres from Chennai, have thrown up a major puzzle in the story of human evolution. In a significant archaeological finding, researchers led by Shanti Pappu of Sharma Centre for Heritage Education, Chennai, unearthed over 7,000 stone artefacts, some of them as much as 3,85,000 years old. The discovery that such a …

Ancient stones found in India might change history
7 years, 2 months ago

Ancient stones found in India might change history

CNN  

CNN — Thousands of stone tools dating back as far as 385,000 years that have been uncovered in India suggest humans might have migrated from Africa much earlier than previously thought. Sharma Centre for Heritage Education, India However, in a study by archeologist Shanti Pappu and her team from the Sharma Centre for Heritage Education in India, stone tools discovered …

Monkeys 'throw spanner' in our understanding of human evolution by accidentally making tools
8 years, 5 months ago

Monkeys 'throw spanner' in our understanding of human evolution by accidentally making tools

The Independent  

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. There are important questions too about the uniqueness of early hominin behaviour.” His co-author, Dr …

This is how humans made ropes 40,000 years ago
8 years, 8 months ago

This is how humans made ropes 40,000 years ago

India TV News  

A team of German researchers have discovered the tools that were used for making ropes about 40,000 years ago, the time when modern humans arrived in Europe. The find in Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany is a carefully carved and beautifully preserved piece of mammoth ivory 20.4 cm in length with four holes between seven and nine mm in …

Monkeys have been using tools for at least 700 years, archaeologists discover
8 years, 8 months ago

Monkeys have been using tools for at least 700 years, archaeologists discover

The Independent  

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Archaeologists have discovered capuchin monkeys in Brazil have been using stone hammers and anvils to …

'New beginning to the known archaeological record' as oldest stone tools ever discovered found in Kenya
9 years, 10 months ago

'New beginning to the known archaeological record' as oldest stone tools ever discovered found in Kenya

The Independent  

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The stone tools predate the earliest known members of the Homo genus by about half …

World's oldest jewellery made from eagle claws was worn by human relatives 130k years ago
10 years ago

World's oldest jewellery made from eagle claws was worn by human relatives 130k years ago

Daily Mail  

Scientists say they were in fact intelligent and had sophisticated culture This contradicts traditional views of Neanderthals as primitive and stupid The claws predate the arrival of modern humans in Europe by 80,000 years They say it suggests Neanderthals had used them for a symbolic purpose Anthropologists say it is the oldest example of jewellery to be discovered The claws, …

Tool-making sparked language 2.5m years ago, study claims
10 years, 2 months ago

Tool-making sparked language 2.5m years ago, study claims

Daily Mail  

The first conversation between our ancestors was about DIY and likely took place between 2.5 to 1.8 million years ago. 'Our data show this process was ongoing two and a half million years ago, which allows us to consider a very drawn-out and gradual evolution of the modern human capacity for language and suggests simple 'proto-languages' might be older than …

Neanderthals had 'distinct cultures': Ancient tool types show knowledge was passed down generations
11 years, 7 months ago

Neanderthals had 'distinct cultures': Ancient tool types show knowledge was passed down generations

Daily Mail  

Neanderthals had 'distinct cultures': Ancient tool types show knowledge was passed down generations The design of handaxes demonstrate social learning in different Neanderthal groups living in what is now modern Europe An archaeologist from the University of Southampton examined the design of 1,300 stone tools from 80 Neanderthal sites in five European countries Dr Ruebens uncovered two separate handaxe traditions …

Neanderthal tools present new challenges to archaeologists
11 years, 7 months ago

Neanderthal tools present new challenges to archaeologists

CNN  

Story highlights Archaeologists uncover 50,000-year-old specialized bone tools The tools are discovered at Neanderthal sites Modern humans are thought to have arrived in Europe at least 40,000 years ago CNN — Neanderthals likely died off about 30,000 years ago, but they may have come up with a tool-making technique that influenced later humans in Europe, a new study suggests. Scientists …

Oldest Advanced Tools Found in Kenya
13 years, 7 months ago

Oldest Advanced Tools Found in Kenya

Wired  

By John Timmer, Ars Technica Given that chimps have demonstrated the ability to make and use tools in the wild, chances our that our human ancestors inherited some of that ability from the ancestor both humans and chimps have in common. By 1.4 million years ago, African Homo erectus was using the far more involved and sophisticated Acheulian tool technology, …

Highly skilled early knappers
14 years ago

Highly skilled early knappers

The Hindu  

Though our early ancestors used stone tools for more than two million years, certain techniques used for shaping them into more potent weapons are of relatively recent innovation. Pressure flaking, one of the techniques used to produce sharp-edged points on the tool, was believed to have originated merely 20,000 years ago. Oldowan tools, which are sharp stone flakes struck from …

Out of Africa: stone tools rewrite history of man as a global species
14 years, 2 months ago

Out of Africa: stone tools rewrite history of man as a global species

The Independent  

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Scientists have found a set of stone tools buried beneath a collapsed rock shelter in …

Oldest known stone axe found in Arnhem Land
14 years, 4 months ago

Oldest known stone axe found in Arnhem Land

ABC  

A piece of stone axe found in the Northern Territory has been dated at 35,500 years old, making it the oldest of its type in the world. Dr David says the find shows the Jawoyn people were the first to grind axes to sharpen its edges. "We could see with the angled light that the rock itself has all these …

Cultural remains of 70,000-year-old civilisation found in Orissa
16 years ago

Cultural remains of 70,000-year-old civilisation found in Orissa

Hindustan Times  

In a major breakthrough, researchers from Sambalpur University recently discovered the cultural remains of a civilisation that is supposed to be more than 70,000 years old. HT Image "The site has tremendous potential for further research to unravel the Palaeolithic life in this part of the sub-continent," said the head of the research team P.K.Behera of the university’s History department. …

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