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The Stone Age in archaeology

Beginning of the Stone Age]

In 2010, fossilised animal bones bearing marks from stone tools were found in the Lower Awash Valley in Ethiopia. Discovered by an international team led by Shannon McPherron, at 3.4 million years old they are the oldest evidence of stone tool use ever found anywhere in the world.^[1]

The oldest known stone tools have been excavated from several sites at Gona, Ethiopia, on the sediments of the paleo-Awash River, which serve to date them. All the tools come from the Busidama Formation, which lies above a disconformity, or missing layer, which would have been from 2.9 to 2.7 mya. The oldest sites containing tools are dated to 2.6–2.55 mya.^[4] One of the most striking circumstances about these sites is that they are from the Late Pliocene, where previous to their discovery tools were thought to have evolved only in the Pleistocene. Rogers and Semaw, excavators at the locality, point out that:^[5]

"...the earliest stone tool makers were skilled flintknappers .... The possible reasons behind this seeming abrupt transition from the absence of stone tools to the presence thereof include ... gaps in the geological record."

The excavators are confident that more tools will be found elsewhere from 2.9 mya. The species who made the Pliocene tools remains unknown. Fragments ofAustralopithecus garhi, Australopithecus aethiopicus^[6] and Homo, possibly Homo habilis, have been found in sites near the age of the oldest tools.^[7]

End of the Stone Age[edit source | edit]

Innovation of the technique of smelting ore ended the Stone Age and began the Bronze Age. The first most significant metal manufactured was bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, each of which was smelted separately. The transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age was a period during which modern people could smelt copper, but did not yet manufacture bronze, a time known as the Copper Age, or more technically the Chalcolithic, "copper-stone" age. The Chalcolithic by convention is the initial period of the Bronze Age and is unquestionably part of the Age of Metals. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age. During this entire time stone remained in use in parallel with the metals for some objects, including those also used in the Neolithic, such as stone pottery.

The transition out of the Stone Age occurred between 6000 BCE and 2500 BCE for much of humanity living in North Africa and Eurasia. The first evidence of human metallurgy dates to between the 5th and 6th millennium BCE in the archaeological sites of Majdanpek, Yarmovac and Pločnik (a copper axe from 5500 BCE belonging to the Vincha culture), though not conventionally considered part of the Chalcolithic or "Copper Age", this provides the earliest known example of copper metallurgy.^[8] and the Rudna Glava mine in Serbia. Ötzi the Iceman, a mummy from about 3300 BCE carried with him a copper axe and a flint knife.

In regions such as Subsaharan Africa, the Stone Age was followed directly by the Iron Age. The Middle East and southeastern Asian regions progressed past Stone Age technology around 6000 BCE. Europe, and the rest of Asia became post–Stone Age societies by about 4000 BCE. The proto-Inca cultures of South America continued at a Stone Age level until around 2000 BCE, when gold, copper and silver made their entrance, the rest following later. Australia remained in the Stone Age until the 17th century. Stone tool manufacture continued. In Europe and North America,millstones were in use until well into the 20th century, and still are in many parts of the world.

Tools[edit source | editbeta]

Stone tools were made from a variety of stone. For example, flint and chert were shaped (or chipped) for use as cutting tools and weapons, while basalt and sandstone were used for ground stonetools, such as quern-stones. Wood, bone, shell, antler (deer) and other materials were widely used, as well. During the most recent part of the period, sediments (such as clay) were used to make pottery. Agriculture was developed and certain animals were domesticated.

Some species of non-Primates are able to use stone tools, such as the Sea Otter, which breaks Abalone shells with them. Primates can both use and manufacture stone tools. This combination of abilities is more marked in apes and men, but only men, or more generally Hominans, depend on tool use for survival.^[56] The key anatomical and behavioral features required for tool manufacture, which are possessed only by Hominans, are the larger thumb and the ability to hold by means of an assortment of grips

Stone Age

           “Stone Age”  humans were the same as us, because  They had a family, language “Stone age” humans were different from us,  because they did not have house, technology and science. Stone Age in Thai more 500,000 – 10,000 years ago, it was the Stone Age of Thailand. People lived by using stone tools to hunt wild animals. There were more 350,000 bodies in the Stone Age. The Stone Age was so interesting because people could make tools from Stone and live in a cave. They could live for forty years old.

          There were technologies in the Stone Age. People in the Stone Age also used stone tools for doing farming and used technology  for Using to hunting such as ax, trap, fire, axe, knife, and spear. About housing in the Stone Age, people lived in cave, had small trip nearly a river.        

           Muza lived in the Stone Age. He never took a bath, brushed teeth. He had a big teeth and it has very smell because he ate all animal. She could live in cave or nearly river and hunting all the time when he want.

           Conclusion, the Stone Age was the first starting for living in the world. They can create many tools from stone and hunt wild animals. They could live in cave. They did not have house, technology and science, for their live. In my opinion, I need to find new tools for hunting in Stone Age.