Discovery of Early Human Tools Hint at Earlier Start 109
A reader writes in with a story about early humans passing down their tool making skills. "Sophisticated bladelets suggest that humans passed on their technological skill down the generations.
A haul of stone blades from a cave in South Africa suggests that early humans were already masters of complex technology more than 70,000 years ago .
The tiny blades — no more than about 3 centimeters long on average — were probably used as tips for throwable spears, or as spiky additions to club-like weapons, says Curtis Marean, an archaeologist at Arizona State University in Tempe who led the team that found the bladelets.
Twenty-seven such blades, called microliths by archaeologists, were found in layers of sand and soil dating as far back as 71,000 years ago and representing a time-span of about 11,000 years, showing how long humans were manufacturing the blades.
Clever crafters The find lends credence to the idea that early humans were capable of passing on their clever ideas to the next generation of artisans, creating complex technologies that endured over time. John Shea, a palaeoanthropologist at Stony Brook University in New York, says that it also suggests that 'previous hypotheses that 'early' Homo sapiens differed from 'modern' ones in these respects are probably wrong'."
Re:Mmmmnnn... (Score:5, Funny)
I think they are off by an order of magnitude, extant evidence shows that brewing alcohol only started about 10,000 years ago.
Re:Mmmmnnn... (Score:4, Funny)
The suddenists think Something Wonderful Happened ~50,000 years ago,
I think they are off by an order of magnitude, extant evidence shows that brewing alcohol only started about 10,000 years ago.
And the first Slashdotter got laid a mere three weeks ago!
Really well organized (Score:4, Funny)
Yes I did (Score:2, Funny)
And please thank your sister for me again.
It took a while but she finally reached my UID and she insists on doing every single UID ever. A determined woman.
passed on their technological skill (Score:4, Funny)
Og: Ug look happy.
Ug: Ug is happy!
Og: Why Ug happy?
Ug: Ug finish pay off student loan!
Re:Yes I did (Score:4, Funny)
It's nice that you call that horse a woman.
Wait, does one hoofbeat mean yes, or no?
Re:Clever crafters (Score:5, Funny)
Fool! Smartphones and tablets are for CONSUMPTION only! No document creation or other complex intellectual tasks.
You kids. In my day, we didn't even TRY to write anything until we had stabilized the CRTs and blown out all of the insects from the CPU (they liked the warmth).
God, it all went downhill when Jobs allowed cut and paste on the iPhone. What was he thinking!