Rapid Fire
Ancient Stone and Bone Tools
- 12 Mar 2025
- 2 min read
A recent study found that ancient ancestors used bone tools 1.5 million years ago, nearly a million years earlier than believed, challenging the idea that toolmaking was unique to humans.
- Origin of Toolmaking: The earliest stone tools (3.3 million years) and bone tools (1.5 million years), indicating that tool use predates Homo and was likely practiced by earlier hominins.
- It is argued that toolmaking required conceptual thought and was unique to humans.
- Fossil of Human Evolution: Discovered in 1974, Lucy, a 3.2-million-year-old human ancestor, played a key role in evolution, possibly using her hands for tools.
- Stone Tools in India’s Human History:
|
Period |
Tools & Technology |
Key Sites |
|
Lower Palaeolithic (600,000 – 150,000 BCE) |
Hand axes, cleavers, choppers (for cutting, chopping, skinning) |
Bori (Maharashtra), Son & Sohan valleys (Punjab), Didwana (Rajasthan), Bhimbetka (MP) |
|
Middle Palaeolithic (150,000 – 35,000 BCE) |
Flakes, blades, points, borers, scrapers (from small stone pieces) |
Narmada valley, Belan valley (UP), Tungabhadra region (South India) |
|
Upper Palaeolithic (35,000 – 10,000 BCE) |
Blades, burins, scrapers (more refined and diverse) |
Bhimbetka (MP), Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat sand dunes |
|
Mesolithic Age (9000 – 4000 BCE) |
Microliths (tiny stone tools, often used as composite tools) |
Bagor (Rajasthan), Adamgarh (MP), South of Krishna River |
|
Neolithic Age (7000 – 5500 BCE) |
Rectangular axes, polished stone axes |
Mehrgarh (Balochistan), Burzahom (Kashmir), Gufkral (Kashmir), Senuwar (Bihar) |
| Read More: Wooden Artifacts of Stone Age |
