Humans first used stone tools about 2.5 million years
before contact. Tool use, including use of stone tools, is a common sign of potential.
Indeed unmodified chimps understand the concept with
minimal prompting, and thereafter continue to manufacture such tools by methods not demonstrated to
them. However, clients are normally adopted within 213 to 217 hab-years of
adopting methods of tool manufacture. Humans developed lithic technologies to an unusual degree.
Some Humans and Neo-Chimps still
manufacture stone tools as a symbol of clan pride
and an artistic craft in its own right.
Olduwan lithic technologies are evident in the paleontological record between 2.5 MY and 1.5 MY before contact. Olduwan tools were made by using various percussion techniques to remove flakes from a core stone. The flakes, and sometimes the core, could then be used as tools. There were four principle techniques of manufacture:
In general, stones with glass or ceramic properties produce superior tools. The preferred stones were hard, fine grained, unweathered and isotropic. Obsidian, cryptocrystalline siliceous rocks (e.g. flint, chert, chalcedony and so on), pure quartz and indurated shale were among the most suitable materials. Olduwan tools show much less media selectivity that later lithic traditions. Olduwan tools are more likely to have been made using less promising media, such as quartz with many inclusions or basalt. Olduwan tools lack any aesthetic quality. They are just roughly shaped stones, principally distinguishable from unaltered rocks by virtue of the acute conchoidal fractures produced by the manufacture process.
These tools were used for several purposes. Nut cracking was done by almost the same method as
used in the biploar technique. This could significantly improve the range of foodstuffs available to early
hominids. Woodworking was another probable
application. Branches naturally fallen from trees are too weak to be used as effective digging
sticks. Instead sharp flakes were used to sever the branches and to shape the severed branches.
Stone tools also allowed the immediate penetration of pachyderm skins. Most other animals were unable
to bite through these thick skins and had to wait until the flesh had started to rot, but hominids used
Olduwan grade tools to cut the skin away, (though probably not preserving it for use as clothing or shelter
at this developmental level) and to fillet the pachyderm. Even the crudest tools could be used to
extract marrow from bones using the basic hammer-and-anvil nut-cracking technique, providing a valuable
source of nutrients --especially fat. (by Robert Shaw)
Whereas the Olduwan toolmakers had no preconceived designs for their tools, Achulean tools are made to more-or-less standard designs, with attention being paid to aesthetics and ergonomics. One additional technique, soft hammer percussion, was introduced. By using a soft material as the hammer --for example, word or horn --different effects were obtained. The three principle designs for core (as opposed to flake) tools were:
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