Stone Age myths we've made up

S.O.T.T: When most members of the general public think of the Stone Age, they probably envision an adult male hominin wielding a stone tool. That picture is laughably incomplete. It assumes that only adult males made and used stone tools, and that stones were the only materials in these ancient people's everyday tool kits.

Both assumptions are at best questionable; at worst, they are simply wrong.

First, let's tackle the stereotype about raw materials. Recent discoveries in Kenya suggest that the earliest stone tools may be as much as 3.3 million years old. 

Other recent discoveries in China suggest that bone tools — used, for example, to re-sharpen stone axes — may be as much as 115,000 years old. A logical inference from these studies might be that our human ancestors crafted stone tools for nearly 3 million years before making and using tools created from perishable materials such as bone.

But can it possibly be true that our primate ancestors exclusively created stone tools for more than 3 million years, 30 times longer than they made tools out of materials that break down, like bone, wood, and fiber? It's possible, but it defies logic to think that was the case. A better explanation lies in the fact that perishable materials don't preserve well over time, whereas stone tools remain well-preserved for eons.

That difference in preservation rates has long affected our scientific understandings of the prehistoric past — and not for the better.... read more>>>...