Early Technology and Its Tools

Stone tools of early technology

The human discovery that round nodules of flint can be split and chipped to form a sharp edge is extremely ancient. Tools made in this way have been found in Africa from about 2.5 million years ago, the earliest known examples have been discovered at Gona, in the Awash Valley in Ethiopia. Gradually, over the years, new and improved techniques are developed for striking off slivers of stone. Variations in the flints found with fossil remains, differing both in the method by which flakes are chipped from the core, and in the range of shapes created, are used by anthropologists as one way of assigning human skeletal remains to specific groups or divisions of the stone age. In the earliest periods a tool is usually made from the core of the flint, resulting in an instrument that can be used in a fairly rough manner for either cutting or scraping. Hundreds of thousands of years later, craftsmen have become skilled at forming the flakes themselves into implements of various kinds, producing specialist tools for cutting, scraping, gouging or boring, as well as sharp points for arrow and spear heads. These sophisticated stone tools make it possible to carve materials such as antler or bone to create even sharper points or such as hooks or needles.