Featured: Please Sign the Petition: Amend the Ancient Monuments Act to ban all building on Scheduled Sites

Please Sign the Petition: Amend the Ancient Monuments Act to ban all building on Scheduled Sites

Random Image

Gundestrup Mark Jættestue 1

Gundestrup Mark Jættestue 1

The Quest for the Shaman: Shape-shifters, Sorcerers and Spirit-healers of Ancient Europe

The Quest for the Shaman: Shape-shifters, Sorcerers and Spirit-healers of Ancient Europe

Login

Register here - as a registered user you get more features and fewer ads.

Who's Online

There are currently, 1677 guests and 1 members online.

Sponsors

Newly discovered giant stone tools reveal unexpectedly early human design skills Kent

Submitted by coldrum on Thursday, 29 June 2006  Page Views: 7657

Discoveries

<< News >>

Country: England County: Kent
Internal Links:

An important archaeological dig undertaken by the University of Southampton, has produced over twenty flint handaxes, including two of exceptional size and quality, which may lead to a reassessment of the level of human development in the Early Stone Age.

The dig, at a site at Cuxton in Kent, uncovered a sharply pointed 307mm handaxe - the second largest found in Britain. Preserved in almost mint condition, the handaxe displays exquisite, almost flamboyant, workmanship in addition to its extreme size. Another giant handaxe was also uncovered beside it, this time a cleaver, 179mm long by 134mm wide.

Dr Francis Wenban-Smith, who led the dig said that the find is significant because the presence of such clearly defined types of handaxe reflects deliberate design, something not previously associated with the Lower Palaeolithic period, which lasted from 600,000 to 250,000 BC in Britain.

"The sharp point, straight edges and symmetrical waist would not arrive except by design, indicating the ability to hold in the mind the idea of the intended shape, and suggesting that humans at that time were already capable of language."

Preliminary indications are that, at 250,000 BC, this is one of the youngest handaxe sites in Europe. Changes in types of handaxe through the previous 400,000 years lead us to believe that the Lower Palaeolithic is perhaps not the period of stasis that is often suggested, but incorporates a trajectory of cultural, cognitive and behavioural development that is continued into, and through, later stages of the Palaeolithic.

After 250,000 BC, Britain becomes inhabited by people making different types of stone tool, special Levalloisian flakes produced from a distinctive core. Perhaps we are witnessing the last stand of the Acheulians, early humans who relied upon handaxes to survive, but who were replaced by people with different, and perhaps more successful tools. Alternatively perhaps the Acheulians just changed their tool-making habits, and there was no change in population.

These early humans went on hunting excursions in bands of up to a dozen, equipping themselves in advance with the handaxes they thought they would need, and returning to their lairs laden with joints of meat. The handaxes themselves would have been used to butcher meat from animal carcasses; and they also probably functioned as symbols of communication, and served to defuse tension without actual confrontation.

Source: 50 Connect.
Contributor Bio for coldrum: Based in Milkyway, contributing since 2002. Favourite site: Avebury.

·
News
·
Please add your thoughts on this site

Magic Stones: The Secret World of Ancient Megaliths

Magic Stones: The Secret World of Ancient Megaliths

More on Discoveries

Sponsors

More News

See all News →

"Newly discovered giant stone tools reveal unexpectedly early human design skills" | Login/Create an Account | 1 comment
  
Go back to top of page    Comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
Re: Newly discovered giant stone tools reveal unexpectedly early human design skills by coldrum on Thursday, 01 October 2009
(User Info | Send a Message)
Giant stone-age axes found in African lake basin

Four giant stone hand axes were recovered from the the dry basin of Lake Makgadikgadi in the Kalahari Desert.

(PhysOrg.com) -- A giant African lake basin is providing information about possible migration routes and hunting practices of early humans in the Middle and Late Stone Age periods, between 150,000 and 10,000 years ago.


Oxford University researchers have unearthed new evidence from the lake basin in Botswana that suggests that the region was once much drier and wetter than it is today.

They have documented thousands of stone tools on the lake bed, which sheds new light on how humans in Africa adapted to several substantial climate change events during the period that coincided with the last Ice Age in Europe.

Researchers from the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford are surveying the now-dry basin of Lake Makgadikgadi in the Kalahari Desert, which at 66,000 square kilometres is about the same size of present day Lake Victoria.

Their research was prompted by the discovery of the first of what are believed to be the world’s largest stone tools on the bed of the lake. Although the first find was made in the 1990s, the discovery of four giant axes has not been scientifically reported until now. Four giant stone hand axes, measuring over 30 cm long and of uncertain age, were recovered from the lake basin.

Equally remarkable is that the dry lake floor where they were found is also littered with tens of thousands of other smaller stone-age tools and flakes, the researchers report.

Professor David Thomas, Head of the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford, said: ‘Many of the tools were found on the dry lake floor, not around its edge, which challenges the view that big lakes were only attractive to humans when they were full of water.

'As water levels in the lake went down, or during times when they fluctuated seasonally, wild animals would have congregated round the resulting watering holes on the lake bed. It’s likely that early human populations would have seen this area as a prolific hunting ground when food resources in the region were more concentrated than at times when the regional climate was wetter and food was more plentiful and the lake was full of water.’

This work is part of an ongoing project investigating the complex history of major changes in climate in Africa. Co-researcher Dr Sallie Burrough has dated the sediment and shorelines of the lake basin, which has shown that the mega lake was filled with water on multiple occasions in the last 250,000 years. The research team has also investigated islands on the floor of the lake - remnants of former sand dunes - which suggest the region’s climate has also been both windier and markedly drier than it is today.

Professor Thomas said: ‘The interior of southern Africa has usually been seen as being devoid of significant archaeology. Surprisingly, we have found and logged incredibly extensive Middle Stone Age artefacts spread over a vast area of the lake basin.

'The record the basin is revealing is one of marked human adaptation in the past. Early humans saw the opportunity to use the lake basin when it was not full of water, but at least seasonally dry. It shows that humans have adapted to climate change and variability in a sustained way.'

Many archaeologists believe that equivalent lakes in the North African Sahara desert played an important part in the ‘Out of Africa’ human expansion theory, as the ancestors of all modern humans would have chosen a wet route out of Africa. The new research is the first time that this giant Botswanan lake basin in southern Africa has been the focus of scientific research, and these findings could provide new evidence to support the theory about a hominid migration through and expansion from Africa.

Professor Thomas and Dr Burrough are planning further research into how the lake was formed and how it came and went. They say that the most likely explanation is that sustained periods of greater rainfall in the Angolan Highlands resulted in much greater flow in the Zambezi River, with the water being diverted into the lake basin due to a quirk of geology.

New research, beginning in 2010 and funded by the Leverhulme Trust, will investigate possible links between the lake basin and the Zambezi River, while initial discussions are in hand for setting up a major international geo-archaeologist programme to further unravel the complexities of human-climate-environment interactions in this important and under-researched region.

Provided by Oxford University (news : web)
http://www.physorg.com/news171790409.html
[ Reply to This ]

Your Name: Anonymous [ Register Now ]
Subject:


Add your comment or contribution to this page. Spam or offensive posts are deleted immediately, don't even bother

<<< What is five plus one as a number? (Please type the answer to this question in the little box on the left)
You can also embed videos and other things. For Youtube please copy and paste the 'embed code'.
For Google Street View please include Street View in the text.
Create a web link like this: <a href="https://www.megalithic.co.uk">This is a link</a>  

Allowed HTML is:
<p> <b> <i> <a> <img> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <tt> <li> <ol> <ul> <object> <param> <embed> <iframe>
We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.