INVENTION OF STONE TOOLS (C. 260000 B.C.E)

EARLY HUMANKIND USHERS IN THE AGE OF INVENTIONS

Introduction:-

The very first human invention consisted of sharp flints ,found and used in their natural state by primitive peoples , who then went on to purposely sharpen stones.The practice reaches back to the very dawn of humankind ; stone tools found in 1969 in kenya are estimated to be 2600000 years old

                                                                                           Stone tools may be made of either ground stone or chipped stone, and a person who creates tools out of the latter is known as a flintknapper.

Chipped stone tools are made from cryptocrystalline materials such as chert or flint, radiolarite, chalcedony, basalt, quartzite and obsidian via a process known as lithic reduction. One simple form of reduction is to strike stone flakes from a nucleus (core) of material using a hammerstone or similar hard hammer fabricator. If the goal of the reduction strategy is to produce flakes, the remnant lithic core may be discarded once it has become too small to use. In some strategies, however, a flintknapper reduces the core to a rough unifacial or bifacial preform, which is further reduced using soft hammer flaking techniques or by pressure flaking the edges. More complex forms of reduction include the production of highly standardized blades, which can then be fashioned into a variety of tools such as scrapers, knives, sickles and microliths. In general terms, chipped stone tools are nearly ubiquitous in all pre-metal-using societies because they are easily manufactured, the tool stone is usually plentiful, and they are easy to transport and sharpen.

                                                                     the evolution of tool making have bought majour changes in human life to complete manyb tasks that are impossible before .Animals could be skinned,defleshed and the meat is divided up with stone clutters,cleavers and choppers.clothing was frommade from animal hides cleaned with rough stone scrapers and later punched with awls . Hunting became more efficient with spear heads fashioned from stone flakes and with adzes ,early humankind could create shelter and begin to shape the physical world to its liking