No more giants, no more heavy handaxes: Why early humans downsized their stone tools
For more than 1 million years, early humans in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean used a range of heavy tools, such as massive handaxes and stone balls, for important tasks, including processing animal carcasses. But then, approximately 200,000 years ago, heavy tools disappeared almost e...
Image: Phys.org
For more than 1 million years, early humans in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean used a range of heavy tools, such as massive handaxes and stone balls, for important tasks, including processing animal carcasses. But then, approximately 200,000 years ago, heavy tools disappeared almost entirely from the fossil record, while the number of lighter tools increased. These included blades, flakes, and specialized scrapers.
Originally published at Phys.org
