Was it a stone tool or just a rock? An archaeologist explains how scientists can tell the difference
Have you ever found yourself in an exhibition of human origins in the museum, where it stares in a glass box full of rocks called “stone tools”, you are under your breath, “How do they know that it is not just an old rock?”
At first glance, it may seem impossible to decipher it. but As an experimental archaeologist With more than a decade of experience in studying and manufacturing stone tools, I can say that there are signs that a rock has been modified by humans or our very old ancestors, Homeins.
This process, known as the name FlintknappingIt can be boiled to the power of perfection, corners and rock structure. Upon completion, Flintknapp creates the known features used by archaeologists to determine stone tools.
Why do stone tools concern?
John Murray explains his skills at the Glendale Community College Club for Anthropology. John K. Murray
Stone tools are rocks chosen for use or deliberately changed. This technology appeared around 3.3 million years ago It has become necessary for homes – all the living species and extinction that belongs to human proportions. Currently, we are Hoomo, the sane It is the only live hninin.
We are not the only living species that make and use stone tools, though – though – Many other prines do – But the extent of modification of their alienists is unparalleled in the animal kingdom. Other monkeys and monkeys It may carry a large stone In their hands to break the walnuts on a similar flat stone.
But most of the hominins do not depend on the collected stones as they are. They modify and form them in useful tools for a variety of tasks, including Cut meat or plants, and woodand Importing hiding Even As the projectile.
Stone tools are important to archaeologists because they are durable and keep well. This makes them some of the best evidence of Huminin’s behavior and allows us to better understand how different population adapts to local environments through time and large geographical regions.
How are stone tools made?
Huminins manufacture stone tools by breaking or rock rock. Here, I will focus on the broken or inverted stone technology because the tools that were made through this technology dominate the archaeological record.
The stirring process includes the application of the force on the edge of the stone, known as the amazing platform, by rhythm or pressure to remove parts of the rocks, which are called chips. With some directions of the teacher and practice a lot of practice, Flintknapters can learn how to select a promising platform on a portion of the stone, called a nucleus, and constantly remove chips. When pressing, the platform is removed from the nucleus and is a major advantage of peeling.
Chips provide sharp edge. Flintknapper can also adjust it in more specific forms of other uses. A creative example of this HandIt is the essence that was stirred in the form of a tear.
The left, the left, is the object that Flintknapper collides, and the chips, to the right, is the material with the sharp edges that are removed from the heart. Some cores, like it, can be from the Pinnacle Point 5-6 site in South Africa, as small as the tip of the finger. John K. Murray
We often use unpleasant stones or large pieces of the vowel, called Billets, to hit the Core Edge. Repeated volatility is only allowed for Flintknapper to produce a large amount of sharp edge in the form of chips, but it gives them the ability to form the desired model … often with The risk of personal injury along the way. My fingers can witness this!
The modern Flintknapper Tools group consists of leather platforms, gloves, safety glasses, the pellets (left), solid red (right), people (right -right with grooves), used to rub the stone edge to strengthen the platform before beating. John K. Murray
However, not every type of rock has the necessary properties to be stirred in a tool. You want the stone to display the so -called Conical fracture. If you have ever seen a glass break, you have seen a hub broken. This smooth lounge, with concentrated wave waves, is defined by physics on how power moves across different materials.
The manual ax by John Murray, displays examples of conical fracture while making chips to form them. John K. Murray
When an experienced Knapper prepares to remove peeling, we understand how the material we do will collapse when we hit it, so that we can predict the check and the size of the tools we produce. Like LushAnd it is volcanic glass, it is the sticker for wooden fracture.
Of course, there is a lot of contrast in the quality of the rocks that hominins used to manufacture stone tools, and many have benefited from the lower quality stone. Even some of the first tool makers were Preferly to choose rocks for some characteristicsLike durability.
How can you learn about stone tools?
You might hear people who say that the rocks they found in their garden were tools because they are “perfectly proportional to the hand” or “in the form of a tool.” But it is not quite clear. Although the shape and function may play a role in the final product of the stone tool, it is not a smoking gun.
Archaeologists can determine whether a large part of the rock is a stone tool based on evidence left behind from the conical fracture process during the flint.
One of these evidence is the presence of scaling scars, or what we call negative removal operations, which can be found on both cores and chips. These have distinctive hills on one or more of the rock that define previous peeling removal operations – thus using the term scar.
When we see multiple scars of the scales that are consistent in their direction and size instead of being random, it is likely that the stone concerned is deliberately operating by hominin.
The second feature is what we call the rhythm bulb. This swelling in the paragraph, below the amazing platform directly, results from the concentration of strength when Knapper hit it.
Given that the production of a bulb of the rhythm requires hitting the rock on a platform at a specific angle with enough force to separate it from the stone, it is unlikely that this feature will be created through natural processes – but not impossible. Scientists have found Naturally produced sharp stone fragmentsOr nature, all over the world, even on the Antarctica.
However, when a lot of chips are found with these diagnostic properties together, they are unlikely to be created normally.
The manual ax made by John Murray shows many scars of the paragraph, some of which were clarified in black. The inner surface of the three rhythm bulb chips illustrates the platform directly. John K. Murray
The last thing to consider when determining whether the rock is a stone tool is the context in which it was found. Are there many stones in the area that shows the properties we are looking for when trying to determine a stone tool? Is the stone tool made of a strange substance, or is it like the rest of the rocks near it?
If you find a lot of stone tools in the same area made of one type of rock, you may have fallen into an old workshop. However, if you discover a type of stone made that can only be found hundreds of miles away, a person may be traded or carried with them.
Try it yourself
I think you are the best way for you to learn to learn if a large part of the stone is a tool or just a rock is the Flintknaping experience yourself. I have taught more than 100 people of all ages to manufacture stone tools, and most of them agreed: it’s more difficult than you think.
This experience puts you in the minds of our ancestors from the Huminin, in an attempt to address one of the early problems that our lineage faced: obtaining a sharp feature of a muffled rock.
This article has been republished from ConversationAn independent, non -profit news organization brings you facts and trusted analysis to help you understand our complex world. Written by: John K. Murrayand Arizona State University
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John K. Murray does not work with shares, consulting, or receiving them from any company or institution that will benefit from this article, and has not revealed any related affiliations that exceed its academic appointment.
