Development of Tools Throughout Time Our world today has many different kinds of tools. I realized this when I was walking through The Home Depot a few weeks ago. On one isle are nails, and screws, the next isle there are power drills to go along with power saws and power sanders. Now imagine the world with no tools, no nails or screws. It would be pretty difficult to do most anything. We would have no houses to live in, no cars to travel to work in, and we would have no place of employment in which to work. Without tools our world would be nothing. This is the world our ancestors faced, and they had nothing but rocks and sticks. Homo Habilis had the challenge of being the first hominid with a larger brain, which allowed him to …show more content…
Close examination has shown, however, that much of the variation among chopping tools was due to the deliberate production of flakes which then could be used as knives, scrapers, or other tools. "Tool makers apparently were concerned mostly with producing sharp flakes without any regard to shape(Leaky 55)."
These tools could be used to make clothes, woodwork, gather products, and process meat.
Crude as they were, Oldowan choppers and flakes mark an important technological advance for early hominids; previously they depended on found objects that required little or no modifications (Wallbank 3). The advent of these Oldowan blades made possible the addition of meat to their diet on a more frequent basis.
The next grouping of early hominids is Homo Erectus, discovered in Java in
1891. Associated with the remains of Homo Erectus are tools of the Acheulean tradition. The Acheulean period lasted from 1.5 million until between 200,000 and 150,000 years ago. The most prominent characteristic of this period are hand axes: pear shaped tools pointed at one end with a sharp cutting edge all around. "The subtriangular hand ax probably had a wide range of use such as cutting, digging, and scraping, and was often shaped into a neat but very efficient tool(Burenholt 75)."
These hand axes weighed as much as 20 pounds a
Mousterian tradition. They created sets of tools with great variety and finely trimmed cutting edges. Flint stone properly chipped forms a cutting edge sharper than a steel scalpel.
Homo Habilis didn’t struggle with finding food because they had small but strong teeth which allowed them to approximately eat anything. Their diet was made up of good quality food, that were ate in small portions. They were capable of eating leaves, woody plants, animal tissues, seeds, nuts, and dried meat. Most of the Homo Habilis were vegetarian and only a few of them ate meat, that’s why they didn’t create many tools for hunting. Even though the Homo Habilis were basically able to eat anything, they chose to eat food that could easily be chewed. Other hominids created different tools due to their diet, maybe they weren't vegetarians or they had different foods that were harder or softer.
Back in the Stone Age, the early man created tools to help them do everyday tasks they needed to survive. In document #2, figure 2 shows a variety of tools and weapons created by early man such as bows, arrows, and spear throwers and so on. The materials needed to make these include bones, antlers, and teeth because they were durable. Some types of tools that early man made was sharper blades for hunting, fishhooks for fishing, and needles for sewing. In document #5, a picture shows a group of people doing tasks to help out with the community. One woman is crafting fur/skin into clothes, another woman is taking care of a child and the men are hunting for food. Without tools, these tasks would take a longer time to accomplish and would be even harder to do. Depending on the group, the cultures could be different, which could effect on how they make a
Much of the human ability to make and use tools and other objects stem from the large size and complexity of the human brain. Most modern humans have a braincase volume of between 79.3 and 91.5 cubic inches. In the course of human evolution the size of the brain has more than tripled. The increase in brain size may be related to changes in hominine behavior. Over time stone tools, and other artifacts became increasingly numerous and sophisticated. It is likely that the increase in human brain size took place as part of a complex interrelationship that included the elaboration of tool use and tool making, as well as other learned skills, which permitted our ancestors to be increasingly able to live in a variety of environments.
These stone tool might have served as a chopper, useful in cutting wood, cracking nuts, or breaking open bones for their marrow.One advance was the development of composite tools, like the spear.To maintain a successful Hunting/Gathering economy, these early modern humans had to be mobile. That is, they had to be able to relocate often and quickly. Hunter/Gatherers could not afford to gather possessions. They had no pack animals to help them carry loads
In the beginning of the Paleolithic Era, bands of humans progressively migrated from East Africa to Eurasia, Australia, and then to the Americas while adapting to their new regions. During the Paleolithic era, hominids used crude tools like clubs and choppers to crack open bones, simple axes, and scrapers to prepare animal hides. As the years went on the Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, and Homo sapiens amended these tools and created new ones. They made these tools so that they can provide shelter, protection, defense from other predators, food, and also clothing. As the Paleolithic era was ending, the hominids were building much more innovative wood and stone structures. They also started
[pic]we also noticed the different types of tools used to hunt from the lowest level to the most current level and retouched flakes prevailed during all periods we have determined by our excavations. This was a favorite weapon to hunt and perhaps used to hunt larger preys found in the area. The use of end scraper also prevailed for many years and it was probably used to tear up the skin to cover themselves in the cold winter time. Other tools were also found, but a significant lower number.
By examining Neanderthal tools and utensils one can gain an understanding of the complexity of
Oldowan tools are a very rudimentary form of a stone tool in which it is formed simply by smashing two rocks together until the rock splinters. If the splinter becomes sharp, it can be used as a tool for cutting. These tools were likely used for scavenging and cutting meat from animals that were previously killed by another predator. An individual would either use the oldowan tool to scrape and cut meat from a bone, or smash the cranial and long bones to obtain brain matter or bone marrow. The bones of local fauna show a parallel scrape marks that indicate tool use. Under a microscope, one can see the patterns created by these tools. If the marks were in a “V” shape, it would indicate a scrape pattern consistent with the bite of a carnivore. Because of the parallel scrape marks; we can deduce that tools made the
Stone blades and other stone tools were used by the humans around 250,000 years ago
Technologies can be considered as structural constraints. Similar to all structures human beings have created, they can limit or enable human actions. Technology can be defined as the creation, adaptation, usage and comprehension of mostly machines which are known to make life better and assist in solving a problem (Wright, 2008). In addition to that, technology is also used to perform a specific function. The use of technology by human beings can be dated back when they began creating simple tools from natural resources. From using fire to prepare their food which led to the increase of food production to the use of the wheel which aided in moving from one place to another and environmental controlling, human beings are
Archeologist took into consideration what function each tool served for. For example, an edge angle of a blade was used to chop off wood (Duvall & Venner, 1979). Blades with wider angles were used to skin
It is amazing that technology has changed the world around us, within just two decades. Some of the technologies include instantaneous communication, realistic looking games, information at the tip of you fingers, and personal computers. These are some of technologies that affect our lives so much. Without them, we could not call it the modern age of man kind.
Homo habilis is thought to have mastered the Lower Paleolithic Olduwan tool set which used stone flakes. These stone flakes were more advanced than any tools previously used, and gave H. habilis the edge it needed to prosper in hostile environments previously too formidable for primates.
In today’s society, modern technology is evidently developing rapidly and it is portrayed as a negative impact. It can be seen that technology is a substitution of all characteristics of life. The purpose of every technological invention is to benefit the lives of mankind; thus re-enforcing the positive connotation of technology. However, in long term it may not be beneficial; such as, education, work and leisure are all becoming dependent on technology; cyberspace is dangerous and child obesity is increasing.