Slide 1Slide 2Slide 3Slide 4Slide 5Slide 6Slide 7Slide 8Slide 9Slide 10Slide 11Slide 12Slide 13Slide 14Slide 15Slide 16Slide 17Slide 18Slide 19Slide 20Slide 21Slide 22Slide 23Slide 24Slide 25Slide 26Stone Tools and HomoRocks that form a conchoidal fracture can be flintknappedinto predictable formsIn flintknapping, you hit the edge of a rock and knock off a pieceThe piece that comes off is called a flake(Whittaker 1994)Homo appears to have been the first humans to make stone tools: they were very simpleRocks that form conchoidal fractures can be flintknapped:When you strike the rock, shock waves ripple throughand form a cone of percussion.Here a complete cone formswhen plate glass is hit(Whittaker 1994)A typical flakeventral or insidesurface(Whittaker 1994)Note how the force ofhitting made ripples,like water in a pondThis is what is meantby a conchoidal fractureA person who makes flaked stone tools is aflintknapperThe two main methods for removing flakes are:1. Percussion hard-hammer percussion soft-hammer percussion direct percussion indirect percussion2. Pressure flakingtype of hammerhow hammer appliedPercussionYour two hands areseparatedYou bring the hammerforcefully againstthe core you are working(Whittaker 1994)A hammerstone is used forhard-hammer percussion to knock off flakesTo recognize ahammerstone,we look forbattering marksand sometimesthe fingerholdsare polishedA hammerstoneis an artifact: anobject made, used,or altered by humans(Whittaker 1994)Direct percussion is when you directly hit onerock with another rockIndirect percussion is when you hit a bone, antler,or piece of wood that is held against a rock. The objectyou hit is called a punch.(Whittaker 1994)Pressure flakingConstant contact iskeptUse a fine pointExert a lot of pressureto remove a flakeHere the person holdsthick leather betweenthe tools and his handto protect his hand(Whittaker 1994)A core is a piece of rock from which youknock off at least three flakesSome tools are made from the core (core tools)Some tools are made from the flakes (that is,the flakes are further flaked into a shape)Some flakes are used, unaltered, as toolsThe earliest stone tools were extremely simple:direct percussion to remove a few flakesuse the resultant core tool, use the flakesWikipedia.comThese first tools are called Olduwan pebble choppersOlduwan because they were first found at Olduvai Gorge;Pebble because they are made from pebbles;Chopper refers to how they were usedwww.paleodirect.comStone ToolsRichard Leakey named H. habilis because it made stone tools.These first tools are called the Olduwan pebble chopperMade from pebbles: take flakes off one or two sidesThree tool types: chopper, flake, hammerstoneUse the percussion methodhammerstoneMaking a chopper1 2 3 Pebble chopperbifacially flaked(Feder & Park 2001:249)hammerstonepebble choppersflakespebble chopperWe call this earliest stone tool traditionOlduwan tool tradition, and its presence signals the beginning of the Lower Paleolithic cultural period, 2.5 myaPaleo = old Lithic = stoneOld stone ageDon’t confuse with Pleistocene (Ice Age)“cene” is the end of each geological epoch nameOlduwan pebble tools found associatedwith H. habilis1. Earliest debate was whether they were tools2. Then whether H. habilis had made them3. More recently, debate whether any australopithecines made stone toolsEarliest stone tools:About 3,000 have been found at various sites ineastern AfricaEarliest date to 2.5 mya at Gona, in the Afar regionof EthiopiaHitting one rock (a core) with another (hammerstone)resulted in flakes and core toolsBoth core tool and flakes used as toolsBoth found at GonaDominez-Rodriguez et al. 2004Gona, Afar, Ethiopia2.6-2.1 myaCut mark on horse boneStone toolsSemaw et al. 2003coresflakesH. habilisAt Olduvai Gorge fossil locality, found ten clustersof stone, stone tools, and animal bones. 1.6 mya in ageThe circles of stones are clean on the inside, butoutside are stone tools and animal bones(Ember et al. 2007:144)Could be interpreted two ways:1) Living/occupation floors of a shelter. Mary Leakey favors this interpretation.2) Cache sites where stored stone tools for processing meat. Too dangerous to live by the kill. Slept in trees or cliffs. Stone tools were carried and stored there. Butchering locale used repeatedly.The types of animal bones indicate seasonaloccupation only during the dry seasonAnalysis of faunal remains indicates H. habilis was a scavenger rather than a hunter. Find:Mostly lower leg bones, not entire skeletons (little meat)Cut marks over teeth marks. The cut marks are not near joints, so were just cutting meat off the bone, not disarticulating an entire animal.How tell if a hominid hunted vs. scavenged?Scavenging: salvaging meat from an animal killed by some other carnivoreMay see teeth marks from the carnivore.If the teeth marks are UNDER any stone tool cut marks:the carnivore chewed on the animal beforethe hominid cut any meat off of it.Hunting: The hominid killed an animal and usedstone tools to cut the meat off the boneMay see cut marks from stone tool used to remove meat.If any cut marks are UNDER any teeth marks,then the hominid hunted the meat, and the carcasswas later scavenged by other carnivores.H. habilis ate meat (we can’t tell how much)We think they mostly scavenged meat ratherthan hunted animals themselvesFind a variety of animals eaten: most are medium-sized antelopes and wild pigs, but also find giraffe and elephantHow can we link stone tools, eating meat, and bipedalism?Using stone tools results in more meat in diet = more manipulation and brain development, sharing and cooperationWe see a pattern of stone tools, indicatingthe beginnings of culture: “a dynamic system oflearned and shared behaviors and ideas thathelp humans adapt to their environments”(Ember et al. 2007:145)We suspect that Homo habilishad languageThey certainly had a need for languageto pass on detailed information abouthow to make stone toolsAnd perhaps for more complex social situationsinvolving sharing of
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