Cultures, Tools and lifestyle

tools - homo habilis

Oldowan tools

• 2.6 - 1.7 MYA

• created by hard-hammer percussion - striking core stone with hammerstone to produce sharp flakes

• made by chipping flakes off larger stone using another stone

• consisted of hammer stones, cores (larger stone) and flakes

materials used to make it:

• Stone/river stone, pebbles, volcanic rock

tools - homo erectus

Achulean tools

• 1.75 - 100,000 MYA

• mainly hand axes, made by bifacial reduction, where a stone blank/core was shaped by knapping (striking) it against another stone to remove larger flake and create rough outline

• hard and softer hammer (soft hammer percussion), like bone/antler, was then used to remove smaller, flatter flakes, refining the tools shape and creating sharp, symmetrical edge.

Materials used to make it:

• Stone (flint, quartz) and bone

tools - homo neanderthalensis

Mousterian tools

• 160,000 - 40,000 years ago

• Levallois technique (tool making method) and soft hammer percussion

  • innovative and widespread

• involved preparing stone core to detach predetermined flakes which were used to create specialised tools like scrapers, points, knives for hunting, hide preparation and other tasks

• elongated flakes

• attached handles (wood) to tools (hafting)

Materials used to make it:

• stone, wood

• triangle shaped - identifying

tools - homosapiens

Upper Palaeolithic tools Aurignacian tools

• 43, 000-26, 000 years ago

• manufacture of blade tools

• used punch blade technique

Solutrean tools

• 22, 000 - 17, 000 years ago

• used pressure flaking to retouch blades - ‘willow leaf’

Magdalenian tools

• 17, 000- 12, 000 years ago

• predominance of bone and antler tools and artwork

• Burin development

tool that makes a tool All use a variety of materials, bone, wood, antler and stone

purpose of oldawon tools

• Butchering animal carcasses

• accessing bone marrow

• tenderising meat

• processing and cutting tough plant materials, wood and roots

• Choppers and Scrapers

• Choppers = used to crush bone for bone marrow

purpose of Achulean tools

• Butchering, hunting and stabbing

• e.g. hand axes, hammers, cleavers, skinning knives

• skinning knives: clean animals and separate meat from skin

• hand axes: butchering large animals

• Cleavers: hack through thick bones, cartilage, dense connective tissue (from carcasses) without chipping or breaking

• to create bifacial tool

purpose of Mousterian tools

• sophisticated and made from a plan and each tool had a specific purpose

• many multi-purpose hand axes used for butchering, digging and chopping wood

• Levallois flakes and points:

  • hafted to wooden shafts creating hunting tools

• side scrapers: scrapping skin from carcass for clothes

• blade tools

purpose of Aurignacian tools (upper paleolithic tools)

• tool used to make more tools

• working bone/ivory; scrapers for hide processing (method of turning raw animal skin into stable, durable leather or preserved pelts that will not decay)

• advantage: mass production of tools

upper paleolithic tools - aurignacian tools

• 43, 000-26, 000 years ago

• manufacture of blade tools

• used punch blade technique