Stone tools   

  c, 2,600,000 B.C.E.)

   Early humankind in the age of inventions

          The very first human invention consisted of sharp flints. found and used in their natural state by primitive peoples, who then went on to purposely sharpen stones. The practice reaches back to the very dawn of humankind ,stone tools found in 1969 in kenya are estimated to be 2,600,000 years old.
The principal types of tools, which appeared in the Paleolithic period, and varied in size and appearance, are known as core flake, and blade tools. The core tools are the largest and most primitive , and were made by working on a fist -sized piece if rock or stone(core ) with a similar rock (hammerstone) and knocking large flakes off one side to produce implement used for hacking, pounding, or cutting. Eventually, thinner and sharper core tools were developed, which were more  useful. Much later, especially during the last 10,000 years of the Stone Age, other techniques of producing stone artifacts-including pecking, grinding, sawing, and boring-come into play.

The evolution of tool making enabled early humankind to complete many tasks previously impossible or accomplished only  very crudely.Animals impossible or accomplished only very crudely.Animals could be skinned, defleshed, and the meat divided up with  stone cutters, cleavers, and choppers. clothing was made from animal hides cleaned with rough stone scrapers and later punctured with awls. Hunting became more efficient with te aid of stone adzes(axes), early humankind could create shelter and begin to shape the physical worked to its liking

Neolithic industries


The most widely accepted hypothesis is that geometric microliths were used on projectiles such as this harpoon.
          In prehistoric japan, ground stone tools appear during the Japanese Paleolithic period, that lasted from around 40,000 BC to 14,000 BC.Elsewhere, ground stone tools became important during the Neolithic period beginning about 10,000 BC. These ground or polished implements are manufactured from larger-grained materials such as basalt, jade and jadeite, greenstone and some forms of  rhvolite which are not suitable for flaking. The greenstone industry was important in the English lakeDistrict, and is known as the Langdale axe industry . Ground stone implements included adzes, celts,and axes, which were manufactured using a labour-intensive, time-consuming method of repeated grinding against an abrasive stone, often using water as a lubricant. Because of their coarse surfaces, some ground stone tools were used for grinding plant foods and were polished not just by intentional shaping, but also by use.Manos are hand stones used in conjunction with metates for grinding corn or grain. Polishing increased the intrinsic mechanical strength of the axe. Polished stone axes were important for the widespread clearance of woods and forest during the Neolithic period, when crop and livestock farming developed on a large scale. They are distributed very widely and were traded over great distances since the best rock types were often very local. They also became venerated objects, and were frequently buried in long barrows or round barrows or round barrows with their former owners.The invention  start developing from hear to hunt the animals and fishes

see also:built shelter