* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Black River Entertainment Adds Traci Hite As Director Of Promotion, Southeast – MusicRow.com

    Black River Entertainment Welcomes Traci Hite as New Director of Southeast Promotion

    Entertainment Business Master’s Grad Launched Nonprofit to Nurture Emerging Artists – Full Sail University

    Entertainment Business Master’s Grad Launched Nonprofit to Nurture Emerging Artists – Full Sail University

    Review: At the Huntington, the New Hollywood String Quartet recalls legendary studio musicians – Los Angeles Times

    Review: At the Huntington, the New Hollywood String Quartet recalls legendary studio musicians – Los Angeles Times

    Kehoe repeals paid sick leave, allows several counties in the Ozarks to have entertainment districts in bill signings – KY3

    Kehoe repeals paid sick leave, allows several counties in the Ozarks to have entertainment districts in bill signings – KY3

    Emily Deschanel was scolded during “Bones” season 1 for being ‘late and unprepared’: ‘I was just beside myself’ – Yahoo

    Emily Deschanel was scolded during “Bones” season 1 for being ‘late and unprepared’: ‘I was just beside myself’ – Yahoo

    How you can see new movies early – Yahoo

    Unlock the Secret to Watching New Movies Before Everyone Else!

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Guest columnist: China cutting corners on technology – The State Journal

    China’s Rapid Tech Advances Spark Worries About Cutting Corners

    Sentrycs’ Cyber Over RF technology integrated into Rafael’s combat-proven Drone Dome system – Defence Industry Europe

    Sentrycs’ Cyber Over RF Technology Boosts Rafael’s Battle-Tested Drone Dome System

    Nordic Air Defence raises $3 million to expand operations and advance drone defence technology – Defence Industry Europe

    Nordic Air Defence Lands $3 Million to Transform Drone Defense and Supercharge Operations

    China’s energy dominance in three charts – MIT Technology Review

    How China Is Powering Its Energy Dominance: A Visual Breakdown

    Meta Acquires AI Startup PlayAI to Enhance Voice Technology Capa – GuruFocus

    Meta Acquires AI Startup PlayAI to Revolutionize Voice Technology Capabilities

    Stallion Uranium Provides Update on Technology Data Acquisition Agreement – GlobeNewswire

    Stallion Uranium Announces Exciting Progress in Technology Data Acquisition Agreement

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Black River Entertainment Adds Traci Hite As Director Of Promotion, Southeast – MusicRow.com

    Black River Entertainment Welcomes Traci Hite as New Director of Southeast Promotion

    Entertainment Business Master’s Grad Launched Nonprofit to Nurture Emerging Artists – Full Sail University

    Entertainment Business Master’s Grad Launched Nonprofit to Nurture Emerging Artists – Full Sail University

    Review: At the Huntington, the New Hollywood String Quartet recalls legendary studio musicians – Los Angeles Times

    Review: At the Huntington, the New Hollywood String Quartet recalls legendary studio musicians – Los Angeles Times

    Kehoe repeals paid sick leave, allows several counties in the Ozarks to have entertainment districts in bill signings – KY3

    Kehoe repeals paid sick leave, allows several counties in the Ozarks to have entertainment districts in bill signings – KY3

    Emily Deschanel was scolded during “Bones” season 1 for being ‘late and unprepared’: ‘I was just beside myself’ – Yahoo

    Emily Deschanel was scolded during “Bones” season 1 for being ‘late and unprepared’: ‘I was just beside myself’ – Yahoo

    How you can see new movies early – Yahoo

    Unlock the Secret to Watching New Movies Before Everyone Else!

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Guest columnist: China cutting corners on technology – The State Journal

    China’s Rapid Tech Advances Spark Worries About Cutting Corners

    Sentrycs’ Cyber Over RF technology integrated into Rafael’s combat-proven Drone Dome system – Defence Industry Europe

    Sentrycs’ Cyber Over RF Technology Boosts Rafael’s Battle-Tested Drone Dome System

    Nordic Air Defence raises $3 million to expand operations and advance drone defence technology – Defence Industry Europe

    Nordic Air Defence Lands $3 Million to Transform Drone Defense and Supercharge Operations

    China’s energy dominance in three charts – MIT Technology Review

    How China Is Powering Its Energy Dominance: A Visual Breakdown

    Meta Acquires AI Startup PlayAI to Enhance Voice Technology Capa – GuruFocus

    Meta Acquires AI Startup PlayAI to Revolutionize Voice Technology Capabilities

    Stallion Uranium Provides Update on Technology Data Acquisition Agreement – GlobeNewswire

    Stallion Uranium Announces Exciting Progress in Technology Data Acquisition Agreement

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

Stone Age Humans Chose Their Rocks with Care

April 7, 2024
in Science
Stone Age Humans Chose Their Rocks with Care
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Were Stone Age humans the first geologists?

Humans living in what is now South Africa 70,000 years ago possessed a surprisingly sophisticated understanding of the various kinds of rock that made up their world, indicates a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Not only did hunter-gatherers of the time know how to make finely crafted stone tools, but they understood exactly which rocks would yield the best combinations of ease of shaping and wear resistance for the task at hand, said Patrick Schmidt, an archaeologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany and study coauthor.

“If you want to make something out of something, you choose the right material for it,” Schmidt said. “Those processes were already in place in the Middle Stone Age in South Africa.”

Schmidt and his colleagues looked at various physical properties to quantitatively compare different types of rocks used by early humans.

The approach may open new avenues of inquiry for scientists hoping to assess the capabilities of our Stone Age ancestors, said Alex Mackay, an archaeologist at the University of Wollongong in Australia who wasn’t affiliated with the research. “You can unpack a whole lot more complexity and decision making,” he said. “Even from something as simple as rock choice you’re seeing dimensions in human thought that we just weren’t getting at before.”

Stone Age Geology

You may look at a rock and see a hunk of stone. Ancient people looked at a rock and saw a world of possibility. Rocks could be knapped, or shaped, into knife blades, spear points, ax heads, and more, allowing hunter-gatherers to take on new prey and use animal remains for clothing and other things.

Rocks give archaeologists one of our only glimpses into culture in the Stone Age, a time when “modern humans start becoming really interesting,” Mackay said.

One long-standing question among archaeologists is what drove people to use different kinds of rocks for their tools. Were they simply using whatever stones were at hand? Or were they making more specific choices about what to use?

To begin to answer these unknowns, Schmidt and his colleagues created a mathematical formula to describe rock properties, including strength, fracture toughness, and fracture variability, among different kinds of rocks to show how much force is needed to flake them.

They applied this flaking force calculation to four different kinds of rock found at the Diepkloof site in South Africa, which was inhabited by Stone Age humans for tens of thousands of years beginning about 130,000 years ago. Some samples were collected from the site itself, whereas others were taken from locations tens of kilometers away. The researchers compared their data on rock properties to existing stone tools from Diepkloof to learn more about how ancient humans selected rocks for toolmaking.

Inhabitants of the shelter fashioned various kinds of rocks, including quartz, quartzite, hornfels, and silcrete. After testing samples of each of these rocks, clear differences emerged, Schmidt said. Some rocks took more than 3 times as much force to fracture than others.

“So there are really big differences. Some of those rocks, you have to hit them really hard to make a flake. Some of those rocks, you just have to tap them lightly,” he said.

Fracture strength wasn’t the only factor important to ancient humans. How predictably a rock flakes and how strong the resulting tool would be also mattered. Looking at their data, Schmidt said they saw distinct patterns emerge at different points in time.

Members of the Still Bay technocomplex, who were making stone tools at the site around 71,000 years ago, seemed to prefer quartzite for their tools. The metamorphic rock is relatively hard and fractures predictably, meaning it’s possible to make finely crafted, durable tools from it. Still Bay points tend to be long, double-edged points likely used as spear tips and sometimes for cutting. Crucially, Schmidt said, the quartzite used to make these tips fractures easily in small volumes—like when you are knapping the edge of a flake to make a tip—but is very strong when force is applied lengthwise to a larger volume, such as when you stab something with a spear.

Later humans inhabiting the site around 65,000 years ago preferred silcrete. The rock fractures more easily, which Schmidt said makes sense given the types of tools those people were making. Members of the Howiesons Poort technocomplex made many small blades for arrowheads and spearpoints that may have been meant to break off inside prey, making them easier to hunt down.

“So you don’t care about the resistance to fracture, because the thing is supposed to break off anyway,” he said. “What you rather want is something that is really making it easy for you to make those segments.”

Showing that changes in the kinds of tools line up with the qualities of the rocks they were made from adds quantitative heft to hypotheses that humans were making nuanced decisions involving stone properties more than 60,000 years ago, Schmidt argued.

“They were testing materials and trying to understand the trade-offs that come from different materials,” he said.

Refining Calculations

It may be too soon to make those kinds of statements about early human tool use, however, said Marina de Araújo Igreja, an archaeologist who specializes in use-wear analysis of ancient stone tools who was not involved in the study.

She said the researchers’ analysis adds promising data, but knapping the rocks they sampled and testing them as tools would help to paint a fuller picture of how ancient humans used these rocks. Studies that re-create stone tools and use them for activities like cutting can help reveal how particular stones performed. That kind of practical testing is an important component of understanding ancient human toolmakers, de Araújo Igreja argued.

“It’s only when you hold a stone tool that you understand the dynamic of the use,” she said.

In addition, there can be a broad variation in rock properties even within rock types such as quartzite and silcrete, she said. Mackay agreed, saying future studies should take into account differences among rocks of the same category taken from different places. He added that Schmidt and colleagues’ formula may help with this. Archaeologists have often assumed that rocks of one type are all the same. With a new way to quantify the properties of stone tools, they can now begin to look more critically within those categories to tease out new insights.

“I see this as a really important step forward…in the capabilities it gives us to access human decision making in the past,” Mackay said.

This article was originally published in Eos. Read the original below.

Nathaniel Scharping (@nathanielscharp), Science Writer

Citation: Scharping, N. (2024), Stone Age humans chose their rocks with care, Eos, 105, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EO240124. Published on 19 March cc 2024.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Discover Magazine – https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/stone-age-humans-chose-their-rocks-with-care

Tags: HumansscienceStone
Previous Post

Finding Monuments Beyond Stonehenge

Next Post

The Top 10 WWE Games of All Time

Are Robust Financials Driving The Recent Rally In COTS Technology Co., Ltd.’s (KOSDAQ:448710) Stock? – simplywall.st

Is Strong Financial Performance Fueling the Recent Surge in COTS Technology Co., Ltd. Stock?

July 16, 2025
Planned LaFollette sports complex to boost youth sports, local economy – WATE 6 On Your Side

Planned LaFollette sports complex to boost youth sports, local economy – WATE 6 On Your Side

July 16, 2025
The Bird Flu Story No One Is Telling – Scientific American

The Untold Story of Bird Flu: What You Need to Know

July 15, 2025
Combining science and policy for a unified global soil biodiversity observatory – Nature

Building a Global Soil Biodiversity Observatory: Bridging Science and Policy for a Sustainable Future

July 15, 2025
Quality of scientific papers questioned as academics ‘overwhelmed’ by the millions published – The Guardian

Are Scientific Papers Losing Quality as Academics Struggle to Keep Up with Millions Published?

July 15, 2025
Lower your risk of early death by some 40% with this lifestyle change – CNN

Lower your risk of early death by some 40% with this lifestyle change – CNN

July 15, 2025
Palmer leads Chelsea to incredible, improbable Club World Cup romp over PSG – ESPN

Palmer leads Chelsea to incredible, improbable Club World Cup romp over PSG – ESPN

July 15, 2025
Feds Collins: solid economy gives Fed time to decide its next interest rate move – Forexlive | Forex News, Technical Analysis & Trading Tools

Feds Collins: solid economy gives Fed time to decide its next interest rate move – Forexlive | Forex News, Technical Analysis & Trading Tools

July 15, 2025
Black River Entertainment Adds Traci Hite As Director Of Promotion, Southeast – MusicRow.com

Black River Entertainment Welcomes Traci Hite as New Director of Southeast Promotion

July 15, 2025
Stormont Vail Health dermatology specialist talks sun safety at walk with an APP – WIBW

Top Dermatology Tips for Staying Safe in the Sun During Your Next Community Walk

July 15, 2025

Categories

Archives

July 2025
MTWTFSS
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031 
« Jun    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (722)
  • Economy (745)
  • Entertainment (21,632)
  • General (15,915)
  • Health (9,783)
  • Lifestyle (753)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (747)
  • Politics (756)
  • Science (15,964)
  • Sports (21,244)
  • Technology (15,729)
  • World (729)

Recent News

Are Robust Financials Driving The Recent Rally In COTS Technology Co., Ltd.’s (KOSDAQ:448710) Stock? – simplywall.st

Is Strong Financial Performance Fueling the Recent Surge in COTS Technology Co., Ltd. Stock?

July 16, 2025
Planned LaFollette sports complex to boost youth sports, local economy – WATE 6 On Your Side

Planned LaFollette sports complex to boost youth sports, local economy – WATE 6 On Your Side

July 16, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version