The Earliest Human Technology
“Humans the toolmakers. . .”—this phrase has served to distinguish the earliest toolmaker humans from all other primates of the day—their ability to manufacture tools, a clear sign of that uniquely human attribute, culture. Other animals like chimpanzees make tools to dig for grubs or other specific purposes, but only people manufacture artifacts regularly and habitually, as well as in a much more complex fashion. We have gone considerably further in the toolmaking direction direction than other primates. One reason is that our brains allow us to plan our actions much more in advance.
The earliest human tools may well have been made of perishable wood, perhaps rudimentary clubs, digging sticks, or spears, but they have not survived. Simple stone tools, made by knocking one rock against another, appeared in East Africa about 2.6 million years ago, the conventionally agreed–upon date for the origin of human culture. These stone artifacts have been found in large numbers throughout East and southern Africa, and are associated with broken animal bones in the East Turkana region at Olduvia Gorge. They were made from convenient pebbles, some perhaps converted into simple choppers by removing one or two flakes.
Stone tool expert Nicholas Toth has shown that the most important artifacts were not pebbles or even crude choppers, but the sharp–edged flakes removed from them. Angular flakes and lumps of lava made weapons, scrapers, and cutting tools, used to cut meat, butcher animals, and perhaps to shape wood. There are few formal tools, but Toth's controlled experiments show that the first toolmakers had a clear understanding of the potential of stone as the basis for a simple, highly effective technology that grew more complex over time. Eventually, the simple choppers evolved into crude ax–like tools, flaked on both surfaces—the hand ax used widely over a million years ago. The earliest human technology is called the Oldowan, after Olduvai Gorge, where it was first described in detail.
Nicholas Toth has replicated thousands of Oldowan artifacts and shown by experiment that sharp–edged flakes are highly effective for slitting skin and butchering game animals. By studying the working edges of the tools under microscopes, he has detected wear from three possible uses¦ butchery and meat cutting, sawing and scraping wood, and cutting soft plant matter. Toth believes our earliest ancestors had a good sense of the mechanics of stone tool manufacture. They were able to find the correct acute angle for removing flakes by percussion. Not even modern beginners have this capacity; it takes hours of intensive practice to acquire the skill.
Unlike chimpanzees, who rarely tote the sticks and stories they use more than a few yards, Homo habilis carried flakes and pebbles over considerable distances, up to 14 kilometers (9 miles). This behavior represents a simple form of curation, retaining tools for future use rather than just utilizing convenient stones, as chimpanzees do.
Toth hypothesizes that the hominids tested materials in stream beds and other locations; transported the best pieces to activity areas; and sometimes dropped them there, carrying the rest off with them. He also points out that they must have relied heavily on other raw materials, like wood and bone, and that stone artifacts do not necessarily give an accurate picture of early hominid cognitive abilities.
What does the Oldowan mean? Did the early toolmakers possess a form of “proto human culture,” with its simple stone artifacts a first step on the long evolutionary trail to modern humanity? Or were the Oldowan hominids at an apelike grade of behavior? After all, the conceptual abilities and perceptions needed to manufacture Oldowan tools also appear in ape–manufactured tools like termite–fishing tools and sleeping platforms. Furthermore, not only Oldowan hominids but also chimpanzees scavenged and hunted for game—chasing down small animals, carrying meat over considerable distances, and using convenient objects to break open animal bones and nuts.
Chimpanzees, like early hominids, use the same place again and again, pounding nuts at the same locations and carrying food to their favorite eating sites. Even if the specifics vary in some instances and the natural environments are different, the behavioral pattern of Oldowan hominids is generally similar to that of apes. There are, however, two behavioral differences between apes and early hominids. First, hominids were at an advantage in that they were bipedal, a posture that is far more efficient for carrying objects than is walking on four limbs. Second, the Oldowan humans were adapted to savanna living, where they had to organize and cover far larger territories in open country than their primate relatives in the forest. In the long term, this may have resulted in new concepts of space and spatial organization, concepts that were definitely reflected in more complex stone tool after a million years ago.
Early hominids with their larger brains probably would not have behaved the same way as modern apes. We can be certain that there were significant differences between nonhuman primates and hominids 2 million years ago, but these changes may not be reflected in stone artifacts. Without questions, our ancestors became more and more dependent on technology. The opportunistic nature of primeval stone technology is in sharp contrast to the better designed, much more standardized stone artifacts of later humans.
