Tool Cultures Flashcards
What was the tool culture of Homo habilis?
Oldowan
What were Oldowan tools?
How were they made? What were they used for?
Pebble tools
Hard hammer/percussion
Striking one rock with another to remove large flakes
Chopper/scrapers
Cutting meat, digging roots, grinding plants
What was the tool culture of of Homo erectus?
Acheulian
What were Acheulian tools?
How were they made?
What were they used for?
Pear-shaped, bi-faced scrapers
Soft percussion/pressure flaking
Antler/bone used to remove flakes from both sides of rock
Hand axes for killing large prey, digging plants, early animal skinning
What was the tool culture of Homo neanderthalensis?
Mousterian (flake)
What were Mousterian tools?
How were they made?
What were they used for?
Smaller, more precise tools
Stone trimmed into disc-shaped core and then flaked
Hafting, blade tools, spears appeared
Bone, ivory and antler began to be used
Levallois method
Pressure flaking to get preferential flake
Scraping animal hides, hunting large animals, gouging/piercing
What are the tool cultures of Homo sapiens?
Aurignacian
Solutrean
Magdalenian
What are Aurignacian tools?
Blade tools
What are Solutrean tools
Willow and laurel-leaf points
What are Magdalenian tools?
How were they made?
What were they used for?
Tools made predominantly from bone and antler.
Made via the use of a burin.
(flint tool with chisel point)
Fishing, prepping skins for clothing, building shelters, harpoons, spear throwers
When did the Neolithic Revolution begin?
~12,000 years ago
Where did the Neolithic Revolution begin?
In the “fertile crescent” in the middle east
When were animals domesticated?
~10,000 years ago
