The Hunter gatherer era
The Stone Age was a time early in the development of human cultures before the use of metals when tools and weapons were made of stone, and human food was mainly produced from hunting and gathering. The dates of the Stone Age vary considerably for different parts of the world and even until very recently there were some cultures that lived in much the same way as the hunter-gatherers of thousands of years ago.In the Stone Age, the hunting and gathering of food was the norm. The males of this time specialized in hunting - usually with stone-tipped weapons, while the females gathered items. "Incidental tools" were the first tools to be used. These tools were stones, sticks and other such items that the early humans found just lying about. Next came "dawn stones" - the first stone tools to be fashioned. These were usually crudely chipped pebbles or flaked stone implements that were used for many purposes, but dawn stones also included the stone and anvil which was used for breaking bones open to get to the marrow deep inside. Over time, a wide variety of tools were made for many purposes. By about 100,000 years ago, humans already had several types of stone tools and were using bone and wood implements as well.
One good example of this is some willows that contain a natural aspirin. Burins were chisels used to carve and shape bone and wood. During this age, humans learned to make many tools from stone, wood and bone. In this process, removing chips from the top and sides made a carefully prepared stone core. These tools enabled humans to hunt better, use the resources around them more effectively and increase their overall chances for survival. Whole flakes were then struck from the core to be refinished into a variety of specialized tools. These kinds of stones could be "flaked" with a bone or antler to give flakes that look something like a human fingernail. The Bow and arrow appeared after 20,000 BC. went by, these modern humans (Homo sapiens) made such specialized tools as bone needles, bone fishhooks, nets, hand axes, choppers, scrapers, backed knives, burins, points, spears, and wooden bows & sharp stone-tipped arrows. Hand-axes could be used for cutting meat, scraping skins, chopping wood, digging holes, and hammering bone or wood. The stones they preferred to use for their tools and weapons, like flint and obsidian, were very hard. The bows were made from strong but flexible wood while the bowstrings were made from sinews. Besides game caught from hunting, hunter-gatherers ate a variety of seeds, berries, fruits, roots, nuts and vegetables that they found growing wild. Humans survived by hunting and gathering. This amazing weapon, along with the spear, allowed the early humans to hunt and kill its prey from a distance.
Common topics in this essay:
Stone Age,
stone age,
stone tools,
hunting gathering,
bone wood,
fishhooks nets,
tools weapons,
dawn stones,
humans hunt,
animal skins,
tools tools,
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