The Genius of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages

The Genius of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages — page 3
first tools STONE The ancestors of modern humans began to use stones as tools around 2.5 million years ago in Africa This marked the beginning of the Stone Age During the Stone Age humans learned how to turn stones into useful and increasingly effective tools genius Chipping away The very first stone tools were stones that had been naturally chipped Humans used the sharp chipped edge as a blade for cutting It took time to find rocks that were naturally chipped so people began to chip the rocks themselves to create cutting tools They used another stone to chip away flakes of rock from one side of a round stone This created a rough serrated edge that could be used to cut meat or dig roots up out of the ground BRAIN WAVE Early stone tools had rough irregular blades The first stone toolmakers used a hard stone to shape tools Later they figured out that some rocks could be chipped using softer materials One technique was to use a long piece of bone or hom to gently chip away very small pieces of rock This created a much smoother blade