The Minds of Stone Age Toolmakers

How did Stone Age toolmakers make the leap from stone flakes to a sophisticated hand axe? Emory archeologist Dietrich Stout recreates prehistoric stone tool making techniques to study the evolution of the human brain and mind.

[billsadler]

Fact: Nature has lots of non shaped objects that will cut through flesh, bone, wood and other hard stuff. Shells obsidian flakes, crystals, and other flaked stones were used by the earliest hominins, including Lucy.

[cliffowens]

I, too, am on the flintknapping journey and it can be frustrating to say the least. I have my good days and the my gravel making days. Hope to get better.

[terp]

Because these videos are for educational purposes and produced by an educational institution, they should be professionally captioned. The auto-generated captions on YouTube do not satisfy the ADA reuqirements

[sticknstonesbrkbones]

That last part where it is stated that shaping a stone tool overlaps the part of the brain that is used to create a sentence is interesting. I wonder if this means that someone with aphasia and can't say what they mean to say also can't do what they mean to do.

[Pixel_Entriment]

When I was young, we went to a museum and tried to make these stones. I made one and ruined it on myself, I only touched from above, but it got worse and I had a bandage on my finger, I did not know how I felt, stupid because I tried it on my interpretation or proudly because I am a very sharp rock even though I do not have experience

[marcwhittle]

The Yanomami which have been described as a 'pre-stone age culture' make no stone tools but on occasion will find and use stone axes found from ancient Amazonian cultures. The Yanomami believe these are presents from their Hekura or personal spiritual sky clan.

[phatphanvan]

I have a prehistoric human stone ax. do you buy?

[sparkyfromel]

Did some stone knapping, a big thing is the material, good flint is rare
some early hand axes were made with very ungrateful material which is a whole new problem by itself
some Australian aborigines in the 19th century discovered glass bottles and used them with relish

[Mixerdirect]

The is very interesting. I'm always curious about what mankind has done in the past to make tools and use them to survive. The real question is what would Bear Grylls do? haha

[GoldenPantaloons]

Hm, interesting thought. How that pans out probably depends on the type of aphasia. Broca's aphasia can screw up people's motor functions, so they might be unable to do what they intend simply because they can't make coordinated muscle movements. Perhaps Wernicke's aphasia distorts intentional thought as much as it does language - such that a person intends to do one series of actions but it comes out all jumbled. Seems plausible considering Wernicke's patients have trouble with sign language.

[brentbaldwin]

I would take a boom box and a tape of "Ride the Lightning" and hope someone heard it ... and yes, I would starve.

[JosephGibson]

...anyone willing to show me the direction where I'll find how we got from Flint to Metals.

[codyconklin]

Did he just talk about that ancient tool's symmetry and sophistication and then share it was one he made? Hahaha.

[whattalks]

Of course, the simplest, most plausible, original stone tool is a pebble on a beach being used to crack open a shellfish... the most nutritious, brain-nutrient rich food on the planet. But let's keep ignoring that so students don't start thinking about any crazy "aquatic apes", right?

[Frandy]

@5tonyvvvv there are plenty of (christian) scientists out there who accept evolution as fact... francis collins for instance.. you know, he was the leader of a little thing called the HUMAN GENOME PROJECT.. he also wrote a book. i think he knows a bit more about homochirality than you do.

[muhammadsmith]

haha its golden:) im glad no one had used it:)

[rynhardtvanrensburg]

Early man were very clever than the anthropologist will tell you!!! I don't agree with anything the experts say about them!!!

[imaclooser]

you can use those fingernails as a stone tool

[ryziemac]

Check up what flint is made of. #tiny”little”creters

[simonphoenix]

I wonder if the need to produce stone tools affected the growth of our intelligence.