Thousands of stone tools discovered in a South African cave reveal that Ice Age humans had developed sophisticated fabrication techniques about 20,000 years ago, according to a report in the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology.
Looking closely at the tools’ chipped blades as well as the larger rocks from which they were formed — what archaeologists call a core — the scientists surmised how the tools were made. That, in turn, reveals much of the makers’ know-how.
“When your average person thinks about stone tools, they probably focus on the detached pieces, the blades and flakes,” Sara Watson, a postdoctoral scientist at the Field Museum in Chicago and an author of the paper, said in a press release. “But the thing that is the most interesting to me is the core because it shows us the particular methods and order of operations that people went through in order to make their tools.”
