The tools of the Stone Age that have been found are the demonstration that man has always been the creator of utensils that help him in the performance of his tasks.
The Stone Age precedes the Age of Metals. It is the first period of prehistory, and contains three great stages that are: Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic, each of which meant important economic and social developments for humanity.
The main feature of the Stone Age is that man made the first tools in stone, achieving a very important technical advance. Thus begins the efficient history of humanity.
Perhaps the man, tired of using only his body as a tool to survive, seeking to make the work easier and using his ability to think, began to use the elements to his advantage.
He found the flint, a stone easy to find and polish that easily fragments into sharp leaves, a characteristic that makes it excellent for making utensils. Then arise axes, punches, scrapers and hammers. Other types of stone used were quartz and obsidian.
Almost all the instruments found in the excavations are very rudimentary elements, carved stones for manual use (Claudio, 2016).
The 10 most relevant tools of the Stone Age
The Paleolithic period (or old Stone Age) is the stage of the carved stone. The tools were made by percussion; that is, hitting the stones with each other, forming flakes or sheets, then touching the edges and achieving the desired effect.
The Neolithic period (or new Stone Age) is the stage of polished stone, as they fabricated the tools by polishing or rubbing the stone, thus obtaining finer forms (Braybury, 2017).
The Stone Age toolkit included the following:
1- The bifaces
They are recognized as the first prehistoric tools, typical of the Lower Paleolithic.
They were usually made of flint and were carved on both sides to a triangular shape with a semicircular base. They were used for drilling, scraping or cutting.
2- The buriles
They were stone or lytic tools, with one sharp end and one rounded for grip.
They were elaborated by means of a technique called of buril: when hitting the stone they form flakes that leave leaving polished piece.
They are typical of the Upper Paleolithic. They were used to make bone and wood utensils, and to make incisions.
3- The hand axes
They are hand tools of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. They were made by modeling stone with a hammer, also of stone, to form sharp edges. The result was a pointed instrument, similar in shape to an arrowhead.
Possibly they were used for daily activities such as chopping firewood, digging holes, cutting meat, scraping leather and for defense against wild animals (Kowlaski, 2016).
4- The spearheads
They were made of stones by percussion, a laborious but very valuable work, because the man discovered that if they were coupled to a wood stick with fibers of plants or animals, they were a valuable tool to shorten the time that they needed to hunt and to collect .
The use of the spear increased the amount of animals that were managed to hunt. They were used for personal protection and could be used several times.
5- The clovis points
They are prehistoric stone artifacts, typical of the clovis culture (Native Americans).
They are the most valuable of spearheads. They were almost symmetrical, lanceolate, with wide grooves on both sides, to easily connect to the wood. They could be used to hunt at a distance.
6- The knives
The first knives were made in stone by the percussion method. They were wide splinters.
They are characteristic of the Middle Paleolithic. During the Palaeolithic period, similar tools of bone or wood may have been used but, because they were perishable, they were not preserved.
Knives were used for cutting and as a weapon to kill animals. Being pointed, they were more efficient at stabbing the prey.
In contrast to current knives, which have handle and blade, the Stone Age knives were one solid piece (Johnson, 2017).
7- Scrapers
They were made of stone chips. These prehistoric tools were teardrop shaped with a sharp, cutting edge. They appear in the Middle Paleolithic but had more use during the Upper Paleolithic period.
They were used to extract fat and hair from animal skins, to separate meat from bones and to polish wood and bone. It seems that their main purpose was to tan the skins of animals to make clothing and shelters.
8- Las azuelas
They were tools of a form similar to the ax, but with edge mainly in one of its sides; they usually wore a handle.
They are typical of the Neolithic period. They were used for the work of the wood and in tasks of agriculture.
9- The borers
They are prehistoric implements used in the Paleolithic. They were made so that one of its ends ended in a rounded point, like a needle, in order to fulfill its function as a punch.
They served to make holes in all kinds of materials. Possibly they were also used as a chisel, beating them with an object on the piece to be drilled.
10- The raiders
Lithic instruments that were made using small flakes, which are retouched to shape the raid, either with single or double edges. They appear during the Lower Paleolithic and survive to nearer periods.
There are several types of breeds: simple, straight, concave, biconvex, among others. Being sharp objects, they were used to cut or scrape. They were also used to tan skins, like the scraper.
They could be used to make cuts in soft materials. They were special for treating skins by removing hair and grease from them (Ander, 2017).
It is estimated that the Stone Age is the first period in which the technology was developed, due to man's initiative to manufacture tools.
The human being will always have the need to make utensils to facilitate his tasks. Since the origin of man, tools have been an essential part of his progress.
References
- (2017). Historical Criticism . Retrieved from What is a raid?: criticahistorica.com
- Braybury, L. (April 25, 2017). Sciencing . Obtained from Tools Used in the Stone Age: sciencing.com
- (June 6, 2016). History and Biographies . Obtained from historiaybiografias.com
- Johnson's. (April 24, 2017). Sciencing . Obtained from Stone Age Knives and Tools: sciencing.com
- Kowlaski, J. (December 2016). Aerobiological Engineering . Obtained from Stone Age Hand-axes: aerobiologicalengineering.com