Syllabus: GS1/Ancient History
Context
- As per a study in Nature, ancient ancestors were using bone tools at least 1.5 million years ago, roughly a million years earlier than was previously thought.
About
- The earliest known stone tools are even older, dating to 3.3 million years ago.
- These dates are based on prehistoric tools that have survived into the present.
- The earliest evidence for the use of wood dates back to only 700,000 years ago.
- British palaeoanthropologist Kenneth Oakley identified tool-use and toolmaking as uniquely human traits in the late 1940s.
- It suggested that tool technology was a uniquely human trait.
- Experts today suggest that ape-like ancestors might have been using sticks and stones in their daily lives millions of years prior to what the oldest tools can be dated to.
- This means that tool technology predates the emergence genus Homo, and it is not a uniquely human trait.
Timeline of Study of Tool Making
- Charles Darwin (1871): Noted that chimpanzees used tools, such as cracking nuts with stones.
- Jane Goodall (1960s): Expanded on Darwin’s work by observing chimps using tools like sticks to fish for termites and leaves to drink water.
- Despite Goodall’s findings, scientists for decades continued to hold an anthropocentric view of tool technology.
- Tool use and toolmaking: Initially believed to be uniquely human, chimps and other primates also use and modify tools.
- Recent Research:
- Chimps have been observed making rudimentary wooden spears.
- Capuchin monkeys unintentionally produce stone flakes resembling those made by early human ancestors.
| Stone Age – It is a prehistoric period marked by the use of stone tools, divided into three major periods: Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic. – Paleolithic Age: Also known as the Old Stone Age. 1. Began around 2.6 million years ago and lasted until around 10,000 BCE. 2. Humans were hunter-gatherers, using stone tools for hunting, butchering, and food processing. – Mesolithic Age: Occurred between 10,000 BCE and 5,000 BCE (varies by region). 1. Characterized by specialized tools, environmental adaptations, and the early domestication of plants and animals. – Neolithic Age: Began around 12,000 years ago and ended between 4500 BCE and 2000 BCE. 1. Marked by the adoption of agriculture, animal domestication, and settled communities. 2. Led to the development of pottery, weaving, and complex social structures. 3. Agriculture revolutionized human societies and led to the rise of civilizations. |
Source: IE
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