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Amazon USA Associate Anthropologists believe that the use of
tools was an important step in the evolution of mankind. Because
tools are used extensively by both humans and wild chimpanzees,
it is widely assumed that the first routine use of tools took
place prior to the divergence between the two species. These
early tools, however, were likely made of perishable materials
such as sticks, or consisted of unmodified stones that cannot be
distinguished from other stones as tools.
Stone artifacts only date back to about 2.5 million years ago.
However, a 2010 study suggests the hominin species
Australopithecus afarensis ate meat by carving animal carcasses
with stone implements. This finding pushes back the earliest
known use of stone tools among hominins to about 3.4 million
years ago. Finds of actual tools date back at least 2.6 million
years in Ethiopia. One of the earliest distinguishable stone
tool forms is the hand axe.
Up until recently, weapons found in digs were the only tools of
“early man” that were studied and given importance. Now, more
tools are recognized as culturally and historically relevant. As
well as hunting, other activities required tools such as
preparing food, “…nutting, leatherworking, grain harvesting and
woodworking…” Included in this group are “flake stone tools".
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