The Stone Age Tools Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 22:35:00 +0000

Stone Age tools uncovered in Yemen point to humans leaving Africa and inhabiting Arabia perhaps as far back as 63,000 years ago, according to Anne Delagnes of Université Bordeaux. The archaeologists have been studying the site of Shi'bat Dihya located in a wadi, or gully, that connects Yemen's highlands to the coastal plains of the Red Sea.
The age of the site puts it at a time when early modern humans were thought to be first emigrating from Eastern Africa to the rest of the world. "The Arabian Peninsula is routinely considered as the corridor where migrating East African populations would have passed during a single or multiple dispersal events," says the study. "It has also been suggested that the groups who colonized South Asia rapidly expanded from South and East Africa along the Arabian coastlines around 60 ka BP (60,000 years ago), bringing with them a modern behavioural package including microlithic (stone) backed tools, ostrich-eggshell beads or engraved fragments. However, this scenario is not supported by any hard archaeological evidence from the Arabian Peninsula. Up until recently, the absence of stratified contexts (archaeological sites) from the entirety of the region has rendered issues concerning the timing and trajectories of the earliest expansions of modern humans into the region largely theoretical."

Read the full story here http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/004807.html
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NPL analyses surface wear on stone tools

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:34:00 +0000

Innovative research by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the University of Bradford used laser microscopes to explore how stone tools were used in prehistory, and the process has helped streamline surface measurement techniques for modern manufacturers.

Archaeologists at the University of Bradford hypothesised that reconstructing past activities was the best way to study what each tool was used for. They proposed to measure the surface structures of replica stone tools before and after they were used in different reconstructions on two natural materials - antler and wood.
NPL conducted surface measurement investigations on the replica tools using a confocal microscope to create a map of surface structure. Richard Leach, who led the work at NPL, said: "We measured the surfaces of each tool using a confocal microscope to create a map of its surface structure. Optical measurements create 3D constructions of each surface recorded without physically contacting the surface."

Read the full story here: http://phys.org/news/2012-07-stone-age-tools-modern.html

Visit The Stone Age Tools Museum http://www.stoneagetools.co.uk

New find of Palaeolithic tools in India

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:08:00 +0000

In an 'incredibly significant find', archaeologists have discovered prehistoric remains at a river bank in Chhattisgarh’s Sarguja district, indicating continued settlements in the area from prehistoric to late medieval period.
The tools and artefacts were found during exploration survey by archaeological department of Chhattisgarh government in January this year on the banks of river Renuka (called Renu by locals) in Mahespur area, nearly 40 km from district headquarters town of Ambikapur and around 350 km from Raipur.
“We have discovered earliest stone age tools on the banks of river Renu. This is an incredibly significant find, since this is the first time Palaeolithic (stone age) tools have been discovered in Chhattisgarh. The remains, retrieved from Mahespur, also establishes for the first time a continuance cultural sequence from prehistoric to late medieval period,” archaeologist Atul Kumar Pradhan said on Sunday.

For full story go to:-
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/nation/north/prehistoric-tools-artefacts-found-chhattisgarh-416

Visit the Stone Age Tools Museum:-
http://www.stoneagetools.co.uk/

Stone Age Europeans discovered America

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:13:00 +0000

New archaeological evidence suggests that America was first discovered by Stone Age people from Europe – 10,000 years before the Siberian-originating ancestors of the American Indians set foot in the New World.
     A remarkable series of several dozen European-style stone tools, dating back between 19,000 and 26,000 years, have been discovered at six locations along the US east coast. Three of the sites are on the Delmarva Peninsular in Maryland, discovered by archaeologist Dr Darrin Lowery of the University of Delaware. One is in Pennsylvania and another in Virginia. A sixth was discovered by scallop-dredging fishermen on the seabed 60 miles from the Virginian coast on what, in prehistoric times, would have been dry land.
     The similarity between other later east coast US and European Stone Age stone tool technologies has been noted before. But all the US European-style tools, unearthed before the discovery or dating of the recently found or dated US east coast sites, were from around 15,000 years ago - long after Stone Age Europeans (the Solutrean cultures of France and Iberia) had ceased making such artefacts. Most archaeologists had therefore rejected any possibility of a connection. But the newly-discovered and recently-dated early Maryland and other US east coast Stone Age tools are from between 26,000 and 19,000 years ago - and are therefore contemporary with the virtually identical western European material.
     Read the full story in the Independent here:-http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/new-evidence-suggests-stone-age-hunters-from-europe-discovered-america-7447152.html

Visit The Stone Age Tools Museum here http://www.stoneagetools.co.uk/

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:07:00 +0000

Dr. Douglas Bamforth will speak about the Mahaffy Cache, a collection of 83 artifacts discovered in 2008 beneath Patrick Mahaffy's front yard in Boulder, Colo., during a landscaping project. The 13,000-year-old tools were made from raw materials originated from the Uintah Mountains in northeastern Utah to Middle Park in the central Rocky Mountains. Bamforth will present about the discovery, the details of its analysis, and its implications for what we know about the earliest occupants of North America. The free program will be held at the Estes Park Museum, this Saturday, Feb. 4, beginning at 2 p.m. No reservations are necessary.

Read the full story here http://www.eptrail.com/ci_19878522

Visit The Stone Age Tools Museum at http://www.stoneagetools.co.uk/

Archaeological report on palaeolithic vessel found on Mount Ararat

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:14:00 +0000

Harvard University educated archaeologist and director of the Paleontological Research Corporation, Dr. Joel Klenck, surveyed the site of an ancient vessel found on Mount Ararat in Turkey, analyzed the archaeological remains and completed a comparative study. “The site is remarkable”, states Klenck, “and comprises a large all-wood structure with an archaeological assemblage that appears to be mostly from the Late Epipaleolithic Period.” These assemblages at other sites in the Near East have calibrated radiocarbon dates between 13,100 and 9,600 B.C. Located at elevations above 4,200 meters on Mount Ararat and covered by layers of ice and stones, he states: “The site is wonderfully preserved, exhibits a wide array of plant materials including structures made of cypress and one room with a floor covered by chickpea seeds.” Klenck additionally notes, “I was most impressed by the artifactual assemblage, particularly the basalt bowls, stone cores and debitage.”

Full story here: http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/sbwire-114562.htm

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Mining operations threaten Zimbabwe's stone age archaeology

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:36:00 +0000

These mining operations are a threat not only to Zimbabwe’s wildlife but also to its cultural and archeological resources. This mine between Sinamatella and Bumbusi camp is within a few kilometers of the Bumbusi Ruins, which is a national monument. In addition to the stone ruins, where Late Stone Age tools have been found, there are unusual sandstone engravings. In recent years National Museums and Monuments have undertaken an excavation in the area and it is believed there are many more archeological finds to be made – unless they are destroyed during bush clearing and mining.

Full story here: http://www.sokwanele.com/node/2352

Visit The Stone Age Tools Museum http://www.stoneagetools.co.uk/

Neolithic site discovered in Staffordshire

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:39:00 +0000

Experts believe they have found evidence of a 4,000-year-old Stone Age camp in the Midlands - thanks to a dog walker. Roger Hall discovered a handful of strange-shaped rocks while walking his dog in Cannock Wood, Staffordshire (England), but experts have identified them as flint 'flakes' - the off-cuts from tools crafted by Stone Age Man.

"If confirmed, they could mark the spot of the only Neolithic camp known in our region," says Roger Knowles, a member of the Council for British Archaeology. He is convinced that buried beneath the grassland is a link between the period when mankind changed from nomadic hunter-gatherer to village dweller.

Fulle story here http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/004632.html

Visit the Stone Age Tools Museum http://www.stoneagetools.co.uk/

Implements found in Arabian desert change ideas on "Out of Africa"

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:59:00 +0000

Newly discovered stone artifacts in the Arabian desert suggest humans left Africa traveling inland, not along the coasts, as long thought according to reports.

Modern humans first arose about 200,000 years ago in Africa. When and how our lineage then dispersed has long proven controversial, but geneticists have suggested this exodus started between 40,000 and 70,000 years ago. The currently accepted theory is that the exodus from Africa traced Arabia's shores, rather than passing through its now-arid interior.

However, stone artifacts at least 100,000 years old from the Arabian Desert, revealed in January 2011, hinted that modern humans might have begun our march across the globe earlier than once suspected.

Read full story here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45501635/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Visit The Stone Age Tools Museum at http://www.stoneagetools.co.uk/

Treasure trove of Palaeolithic tools unearthed in India

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:14:00 +0000

A team of scientists largely from the Anthropological Survey of India has unearthed a trove of Stone Age tools from caves that offer evidence of human habitation in the region some 50,000 years ago.

The quality of the findings, according to the scientists, suggests that these caves could be as important as the rock paintings in the caves of Bhimbetka, Madhya Pradesh—a UNESCO Heritage site dating back to 30,000 years ago, the earliest and most visceral evidence of habitation by human and human-ancestors in India so far.

The tools, described in a paper in the latest issue of the Current Science journal, are an assortment of axes, cleavers, picks and choppers similar to implements found in other parts of Asia and Europe during the so-called Palaeolithic period (spanning nearly 2.5 million to 10,000 years before today).

Read the full story here:-
http://www.livemint.com/2011/11/09234216/Stone-Age-tools-found-in-Dante.html

Visit The Stone Age Tools Museum
http://www.stoneagetools.co.uk/

Thousands of stone age tools found in China

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 20:34:00 +0000

Archaeologists have unearthed thousands of stone implements dating back about 40,000 to 70,000 years in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Archaeologists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Erdos Bronzeware Museum started excavating an area in the basin of the Ulan Mulun River in April, discovering more than 4,200 stone implements, including stone flakes, saw-shaped tools and remnant stones, according to Hou Yamei, the leader of the excavation team.

The river is a seasonal river near the city of Erdos and is believed to have been a primary location for stone tool production in ancient times, Hou said.

Read more here:-
http://www.philstar.com/article.aspx?articleid=737023&publicationsubcategoryid=200

Visit The Stone Age Tools Museum at http://www.stoneagetools.co.uk/

Oldest hand axes found in Kenya

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 18:00:00 +0000

Acheulian flint hand axes unearthed at Kenya’s Kokiselei site date to 1.76 million years ago, slightly older than previous finds, say geologist Christopher Lepre of Rutgers University and his colleagues. Carefully shaped, double-edged hand axes and picks lay among much simpler tools — sharp flakes pounded off stones — at Kokiselei, the scientists report in the Sept. 1 Nature.

These finds underscore suspicions that stone flakes used as chopping devices, early tools known as the Oldowan industry, did not get supplanted by hand-ax making, Lepre says. Instead, the more complex Acheulian devices emerged while Oldowan implements — which first appeared about 2.6 million years ago in the same region — were still popular, although it’s unclear how long the two types of tools were used simultaneously at Kokiselei. Hand axes and other double-edged tools typify the Acheulian industry.

Read further details here:
http://www.sciencenews.org/index.php/seek/view/generic/id/333937/title/Oldest_hand_axes_found

Visit the Stone Age Tools Museum
http://www.stoneagetools.co.uk/

Interbreeding with Neanderthals boosted modern human immune system

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:01:00 +0000

A new study, published in Science, says that humans interbreeding with Neanderthals could have boosted the modern human immune system.

Modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans all share a common ancestor in Africa. These populations split up about 400,000 years ago in distinct groups. One went northwest, giving rise to the Neanderthal lineage, another one went northeast, forming the root of the Denisovan lineage, and the third one stayed in Africa. For a while, at least. Several hundreds of thousands of years later, the African population expanded into Eurasia, meeting their evolutionary cousins.

Full story here:-
http://www.science20.com/curious_cub/did_interbreeding_neanderthals_and_denisovans_boost_our_immune_system-82012

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http://www.stoneagetools.co.uk/

Stone Age people were tunnellers claims German scientist

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:54:00 +0000

Stone Age man created a massive network of underground tunnels criss-crossing Europe from Scotland to Turkey, a new book on the ancient superhighways has claimed. German archaeologist Dr Heinrich Kusch said evidence of the tunnels has been found under hundreds of Neolithic settlements all over the continent.

In his book - Secrets Of The Underground Door To An Ancient World - he claims the fact that so many have survived after 12,000 years shows that the original tunnel network must have been enormous.

Read the full story here:-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2022322/The-massive-European-network-Stone-Age-tunnels-weaves-Scotland-Turkey.html#ixzz1Up35FEgU

Visit the Stone Age Tools Museum
http://www.stoneagetools.co.uk/

Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple? 11,000 years old?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 18:23:00 +0000

German archaeologist, Klaus Schmidt, has excavated a massive prehistoric structure in Turkey that may be 11,000 years old and could be the world's first temple, according to The Smithsonian Magazine.

Six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey, Klaus Schmidt has excavated massive carved stones crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who had not yet developed metal tools or even pottery. The megaliths predate Stonehenge by some 6,000 years. The place is called Gobekli Tepe, and Schmidt, a German archaeologist who has been working here more than a decade, is convinced it's the site of the world's oldest temple.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/gobekli-tepe.html#ixzz1PkOWwx1q

Toolmaking humans may have evolved earlier than thought

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 22:45:00 +0000

According to an article in Scientific American , Reid Ferring, an anthropologist at the University of North Texas in Denton, and his colleagues excavating the Dmanisi site in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia, found stone artifacts--mostly flakes that were dropped as hominins knapped rocks to create tools for butchering animals--lying in sediments almost 1.85 million years old. Until now, anthropologists have thought that H. erectus evolved between 1.78 million and 1.65 million years ago--after the Dmanisi tools would have been made.

The full story is here:-
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=human-ancestors-in-eurasia-earlier

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Sat, 07 May 2011 11:27:00 +0000

Archaeologists have found what they say is the earliest evidence of Neanderthals living in Britain. Two pieces of flint unearthed at motorway works in Dartford, Kent, have now been dated to 110,000 years ago.
The finds push back the presence of Neanderthals in Britain by 40,000 years or more, said Dr Francis Wenban-Smith, from Southampton University.
A majority of researchers believe Britain was uninhabited by humans at the time the flint tools were made.
An absence of archaeological evidence suggests people abandoned this land between 200,000 years ago (or 160,000 years ago, depending on who you ask) and 65,000 years ago.

Read the full story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10206677
Visit The Stone Age Tools Museum : http://www.stoneagetools.co.uk/

Humans made tools 3.4 million years ago says Nature

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:00:00 +0000

Researchers have found evidence that hominins - early human ancestors - used stone tools to cleave meat from animal bones more than 3.2 million years ago. That pushes back the earliest known tool use and meat-eating in such hominins by more than 800,000 years.
     Bones found in Ethiopia show cuts from stone and indications that the bones were forcibly broken to remove marrow. The research, in the journal Nature, challenges several notions about our ancestors' behaviour.
     Previously the oldest-known use of stone tools came from the nearby Gona region of Ethiopia, dating back to about 2.5 million years ago. That suggests that it was our more direct ancestors, members of our own genus Homo, that were the first to use tools.
     But the marked bones were found in the Dikika region, with their age determined by dating the nearby volcanic rock - to between 3.2 million and 3.4 million years ago.
     Tests showed that the cuts, scrapes and scratches were made before the bones fossilised, and detailed analysis even showed that there were bits of stone lodged in one of the cuts.
     Full story here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10938453

Stone age tools from India are up to 1.5 million years old

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 21:05:00 +0000

Archaeologists have discovered India`s oldest stone-age tools, up to 1.5 million years old, at a pre-historic site near Chennai, southern India, the Kolkata-based daily The Telegraph reported on Friday.

     The discovery may change existing ideas about the earliest arrival of human ancestors from Africa into India, the report said.
     A team of Indian and French archaeologists has used two dating methods to show that the stone hand-axes and cleavers from Attirampakkam are at least 1.07 million years old, and could date as far back as 1.5 million years, said the report.
     In nearly 12 years of excavation, archaeologists Shanti Pappu and Kumar Akhilesh from the Sharma Center for Heritage Education, Chennai, have found 3,528 artifacts that are similar to the prehistoric tools discovered in western Asia and Africa, it added.

More here:
http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/69570/archaeologists-find-oldest-stone-age-tools-in-southern-india

World's oldest calendar?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 11:42:00 +0000

The world's first calendar may be an eagle bone with rows of 14 or 15 notches made 30,000 years ago and found at Le Placard on the Dordogne River near Le Eyzies, France. The bone contains 69 mysterious marks and notches, including circles, crescents, arc and ear-shapes, that appear to be in synch with the phases of the moon. Fourteen and 15 days are roughly the interval between a new moon and a full moon. Some have suggested it may have helped women keep track of the menstrual cycle. Others say it may have been tabulating device Skeptic say it may just be a bone with a lot of scratches on it.

Read the full story here:- http://factsanddetails.com/world.php?itemid=1500&catid=56&subcatid=362

The First Farmers: Older Than You Think

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 17:57:00 +0000

A fascinating and informative article by by John Koster relates several interesting episodes from the early study and discovery of Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeology. Specially interesting is his mention of the discovery of Catal Hüyük in what is now Turkey, flourishing around 7,500 B.C. before farming became well extablished in the Fertile Crescent.

Read Koster's full story here:- http://bit.ly/gUQOqN

Early stone tools in California

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 22:14:00 +0000

A new study in the Journal Science reports that scores of stemmed projectile points and crescents found on California’s Channel Islands suggest that people who depended on a sea economy arrived in the Americas very early, possibly by a coastal route.
The artifacts, likely made by inhabitants between 12,200 to 11,400 years ago, are associated with the remains of shellfish, seals, geese, cormorants, and fish. The study team also found thousands of artifacts made from chert, a flint-like rock used to make projectile points and other stone tools.
Some of the intact projectiles are so delicate that their only practical use would have been for hunting on the water, says Jon Erlandson, professor of anthropology at the University of Oregon. He has been conducting research on the islands for more than 30 years.

“This is among the earliest evidence of seafaring and maritime adaptations in the Americas, and another extension of the diversity of Paleoindian economies,” Erlandson says. “The points we are finding are extraordinary, the workmanship amazing. They are ultra thin, serrated, and have incredible barbs on them. It’s a very sophisticated chipped-stone technology.”

Full story here:-

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6021/1181.abstract?sid=13356725-4666-4643-bc9e-60ea0110ae24

Stone age tools required greater brain power claims study

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:16:00 +0000

I'm filing this story in my 'dodgy dossier' drawer along with aromatherapy-crystal-dowsing and Alastair Campbell's Iraq-WMD file, but I report it here in the interests of completeness.

Stone Age humans were only able to develop relatively advanced tools after their brains evolved a greater capacity for complex thought, according to a new study that investigates why it took early humans almost two million years to move from razor-sharp stones to a hand-held stone axe. Researchers used computer modelling and tiny sensors embedded in gloves to assess the complex hand skills that early humans needed in order to make two types of tools during the Lower Palaeolithic period, which began around 2.5 million years ago. The cross-disciplinary team, involving researchers from Imperial College London, employed a craftsperson called a flintnapper to faithfully replicate ancient tool-making techniques.

Read the full story here:-
http://machineslikeus.com/news/stone-age-humans-needed-more-brain-power-make-big-leap-tool-design

UK's oldest home shows evidence of carpentry

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 19:19:00 +0000

A team of archaeologists from the Universities of Manchester and York have reported that a home excavated in Yorkshire dates to at least 8,500 BC - when Britain was still part of continental Europe.The research team unearthed the 3.5 metres circular structure next to an ancient lake at Star Carr, near Scarborough, a site comparable in archaeological importance to Stonehenge. The team is currently excavating a large wooden platform next to the lake, made of timbers which have been split and hewn. The platform is the earliest evidence of carpentry in Europe.

Read the full story in Science Daily here:- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100810101724.htm

Stone age people painted their homes

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Milton) — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 17:29:00 +0000

Mesolithic people 5,000 years ago brightened up their Stone Age homes by painting the insides, according to new archaeological evidence. They used red, yellow and orange pigments from ground-up minerals and bound it with animal fat and eggs to make their paint. It is the earliest ever example of man using paint to decorate their properties in Britain, if not in Europe.

Read the full story here:-
http://sify.com/news/even-stone-age-homes-were-painted-news-international-kk5oEkdaagj.html