Use of Bone Tools by Ancestors

Context

As per a study in Nature, historic ancestors were the usage of bone tools at least 1.5 million years ago, roughly one million years earlier than was previously concept.

Key Highlights

• The earliest recognized stone tools are even older, dating to 3.3 million years in the past.
• These dates are based on prehistoric tools which have survived into the existing. 
• The earliest evidence for the use of wood dates back to the most effective 700,000 years in the past.
• British palaeoanthropologist Kenneth Oakley recognized tool-use and toolmaking as uniquely human traits in the past due 1940s.
• It advised that tool technology become a uniquely human trait.
• Experts today advocate that ape-like ancestors might have been using sticks and stones in their daily lives millions of years prior to what the oldest equipment can be dated to.
• This approach to tool technology predates the emergence genus Homo, and it is not a uniquely human trait.

Timeline of Study of Tool Making

• Charles Darwin (1871): Noted that chimpanzees used equipment, consisting of cracking nuts with stones.
• Jane Goodall (1960s): Expanded on Darwin’s paintings via gazing chimps the usage of tools like sticks to fish for termites and leaves to drink water.
  • Despite Goodall’s findings, scientists for many years persisted to keep an anthropocentric view of tool technology.
• Tool use and toolmaking: Initially believed to be uniquely human, chimps and other primates also use and modify tools.

Recent Research

• Chimps were studied making rudimentary timber spears.
• Capuchin monkeys by chance produce stone flakes reminiscent of the ones made via early human ancestors.

Stone Age

• It is a prehistoric period marked through the use of stone equipment, divided into three most important intervals: Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic.
• Paleolithic Age: Also referred to as the Old Stone Age.
  • Began around 2.6 million years in the past and lasted till around 10,000 BCE.
  • Humans were hunter-gatherers, using stone equipment for searching, butchering, and food processing.
• Mesolithic Age: Occurred between 10,000 BCE and five,000 BCE (varies by region).
  • Characterized through specialized equipment, environmental diversifications, and the early domestication of plants and animals.
• Neolithic Age: Began around 12,000 years ago and ended among 4500 BCE and 2000 BCE.
  • Marked by the adoption of agriculture, animal domestication, and settled communities.
  • Led to the development of pottery, weaving, and complex social structures.
  • Agriculture revolutionized human societies and led to the upward thrust of civilizations.

Source: The Indian Express

UPSC Mains Practice Question

Q. Mesolithic rock-cut architecture of India not only reflects the cultural life of the times but also a fine aesthetic sense comparable to modern painting. Critically evaluate this comment. (UPSC Mains 2015)

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