Oldowan tool technology

We do not know which of the particular categories of sharp-edged Oldowan tools created cut marks on animal bones. Pebble cores, flakes, and retouched flake-tools all work reasonably well as butchery aids in experiments Jones, , ; Toth, , Stone tools knapped and used for ad hoc butchery by recent mobile human groups show little attention to imposition of design beyond assuring the presence of a sharp cutting edge e.

Thus there is no compelling reason to reject the hypothesis that any or all Oldowan stone tools could have been used as butchery aids by early hominins.

Whether the performance differences some experimenters have noted among different classes of replicated Oldowan tools in butchery experiments Toth et al. The use of stone tools as butchery aids is likely to have generated large numbers of flaked stone artifacts, for several reasons. First, the energetic costs involved in gathering locally-available rocks and knapping a few flakes to be carried as "personal gear" would have been miniscule compared to the potential windfall energetic gain from meat- and fat-bearing animal carcasses encountered in daily foraging.

Stone tools are durable resources that, once knapped, could have persisted on the landscape for decades or more. Nearly every known ethnographic stone-tool-using human population treats abandoned campsites and known archaeological sites as sources of raw material for their immediate needs.

Secondly, while butchery is not necessarily a task that involves high rates of edge attrition on stone tools, it is a task that can have low thresholds for tool discard and correspondingly high rates for tool provisioning.

Prolonged and forceful contact between a stone tool and bone causes numerous minute fractures on the tool edge. These fracture scars scoop up fat, meat, and periosteum, lubricating the edge, and reducing its cutting effectiveness. Microtopographic irregularities on the surface of coarse-grained rocks function in the same way, even in the absence of microfracturing damage.

The functionality of such a lubricated stone tool edge declines rapidly, requiring that the tool either be resharpened or replaced. Knapping razor-sharp stone whilst one's hands are caked in blood, dirt, hair and grease is never a good idea JS has the scar tissue to prove it!

A far safer option would have been to simply replace the tool with a fresh one from a previously-knapped supply. It is possible that the vast quantities of knapped stone at Oldowan sites reflect the accurate perception by their makers that butchery episodes require frequent replacements of stone tools. The earliest user of Acheulean tools was Homo ergaster, who first appeared about 1.

Not all researchers use this formal name, and instead prefer to call these users early Homo erectus. How did the earliest humans get food? Until agriculture was developed around 10, years ago, all humans got their food by hunting, gathering, and fishing. When was fire discovered? Claims for the earliest definitive evidence of control of fire by a member of Homo range from 1. Evidence for the 'microscopic traces of wood ash' as controlled use of fire by Homo erectus, beginning some 1,, years ago, has wide scholarly support.

What was the first hominid to leave Africa? Homo ergaster. What is the early Stone Age? Early Stone Age Tools. The earliest stone toolmaking developed by at least 2. The Early Stone Age includes the most basic stone toolkits made by early humans. Behavioral and dietary changes due to tool usage most likely contributed to the development of Homo habilis , indicating that the manufacturers of the earliest Oldowan tools still belonged to the australopithecines.

These are close, now extinct relatives to humans. Anatomical variations existed between australopithecine species as well. The more robust forms sometimes referred to as Paranthropus were vegetarians with big cheeks and teeth, while the gracile forms had smaller relative teeth and jaws. In modern research, the lines have blurred and some specimens show robust and gracile characteristics. Various theories exist on tool invention by australopithecines.

On the one hand, robust specimens like Australopithecus Paranthropus aethiopicus seem plausible inventors. Despite their strong jaws and teeth, a vegetarian diet would have benefitted from tools to cut plants.

On the other hand, gracile australopithecines needed to compensate for their relatively smaller jaws and teeth. The invention of Oldowan tools might have occurred from a need to access new sources of food.

What about other apes? Modern apes use sticks and stones as tools, so maybe their ancestors were able to shape the Oldowan tools? This theory is unlikely, although not impossible: Experiments with bonobos have shown they can create stone tools if taught. But so far, no ape has been observed achieving this in the wild. Additionally, the Oldowan tools show a higher level of craftsmanship than ape-made artifacts. Long story short: It is impossible to tell, which species created the first Oldowan tools, and future discoveries will hopefully shine further light on this question.

But what about other natural resources? Unfortunately, materials like bone, hide, or wood are less resilient than stone. While our ancestors may have used them, tools made from these substances have not survived. The Oldowan tools remain at the moment the first documented step in our technological journey. Oldowan tools are categorized and known as Mode 1 tools, which are then succeeded by Mode 2 tools known as the Acheulean tools.

They decided to use a modern human skeleton to infer some of the missing pieces. The team filled in some of the missing parts using other fossils and making a physical model of the skeleton which they would use as a basis of the reconstruction Prehistoric Autopsy video. Professor Robin Crompton used a series of footprint trails from the Laetoli area to find more information about bipedalism of afarensis. Essays Essays FlashCards. Browse Essays. Sign in. Home Page Oldowan Technology. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality.

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