Stone Age People Were Good Gunsmiths

With sharp stone knives and spears to hunt: Stone Age people were obviously far earlier than previously known to resort to sharp blades. New findings suggest that the techniques for several thousand years earlier than previously developed.

With sharp weapons are chasing better. And Stone Age people could probably bring much earlier such practical tools to use than expected. Then at least suggest finds out from a cave in South Africa. A special technique, edited by controlling the edges of rocks with pressure was, therefore, already 75,000 years ago. That would be about 55,000 years earlier than expected. Moreover, the procedure would not, as previously suggested for the first time in Western Europe have been used, but in Africa.

The principle was ingenious and effective: The so-called Pressure-Flaking is on the edge of the initial rough-hewn stone pieces with an animal bone or other tool to put pressure so strong that chip thin stone plates. This produces very sharp edges. Some stones may be edited directly in this way, others must first be heated.

The researchers led by Christopher Henshilwood and Paola Villa of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa and the University of Colorado at Boulder now examined stone tools from the Blombos Cave in South Africa. There were previously many references to the life and behavior of the Stone Age have been found.

The team also tried to establish itself in local stone tools, were like the found objects. In this case, the researchers found that the stones had been heated before they received their final polish. The rock if it were called Silcrete. Although this material could be rightly cut roughly in his natural state. The detachment fine splinter pressure is impossible, the researchers write in Science Journal “Science”.

They then examined the edges of stone tools with a microscope. They discovered that the traces that remain after removal of the fragments on the stone, have different edges. Some of them were rough and brittle, which indicate any editing of the stone in its raw state. Part of the scars was also quite smooth, as is typical of the working of the stones is by prior heating.

The tool-makers have targeted the stones so heated in a step of the process in the fire and then for the finishing touch conclude treatments, the researchers said. The technique allows toolmakers to work on controlling the very edges of the stones. In this way, could be produced very much sharper and sharper tools than by rough carving alone. Traces found at the stone blades indicated that they were used for hunting.