Queens, Kings, and Non-Binary Things of the Stone Age

Stone Age Science - Survival of the Smartest

Things were difficult back in the Stone Age! The Internet hadn't been invented yet, no-one had seen the good seasons of Game of Thrones, and if you wanted a cold drink you had to wait for the next Ice Age to roll around. Our early ancestors had a rough time of it, but against all odds, they prevailed!

Well. Homo Sapiens prevailed. All the other species of humans had died out in ~*mysterious circumstances*~ by about 40,000 years ago, including the strong-browed homo neanderthal and the small-framed homo floresiensis (nicknamed "the hobbit" for its diminuitive size). While the details have been lost to time, some... unfortunate h. neanderthal remains have shown us they may have gone the way of the dodo in a rather more literal sense than usual - Neanderthal bones have been found that show signs of cannibalism, but whether or not it was at the hands of fellow Neanderthals or our own famously hungry species, we cannot say for sure.

But I digress!

What we do know is that the Stone Age kicked off around 3 million years ago, as early hominids started banging rocks together in a slightly more organised way than before, and what distinguished this tool use from, say, a bird of prey dropping a tortoise onto a rock, or even a sea otter cracking open a delicious clam, was the actual creation of the tools themselves.

"Oldowan tools", as they are known, are the earliest examples of man (or pre-man)-made tools. Though very basic in design, they show signs of having been adapted from conveniently sized rocks, usually by chipping small parts off to create a more functional "chopper" as we see below.

Behold: the cutting edge of Paleolithic stone tech!

These tools seemed to be an absolutely brilliant design, no notes, for around a million years - that means that what was essentially no more than a slightly pointéd rock kept us technological apes in business for a solid third of our total time on Earth. But the (pre-) human spirit of engineering was developing, and (not very) soon enough, we had the....

Acheulean Revolution!

No, there weren't any flags, or big hats with rosettes on them (although there probably was a fair bit of head chopping going on, and I guarantee it was a lot messier than the trusty guillotine) but it was a revolution nonetheless as hominids round the globe discovered, forgot, then rediscovered how to make their pointy rocks EVEN POINTIER.

These aint your grandaddy's handaxes...

What I find fascinating about this advancement is it shows that the principles of both experimentation (i.e. trial and error) and engineering ("how can I make this thing do stuff better") have been present in humans since long before humans even existed. Acheulean tools were more symmetrical (aesthetic), were shaped to be more easily held in the hand (ergonomic) and could be designed to perform multiple different tasks (modular...sort of). They were basically the Stone Age equivalent of the iPhone. No, I will not be taking questions or comments at this time.

They were created using a process known as knapping, where a piece of flint, basalt, or other hard stone would be struck with a large, rounded pebble known as a hammerstone in order to chip off flakes and produce a cutting edge. The process was doubly efficient, as the larger pieces that flaked off your stone could be easily repurposed as small cutting edges themselves. One of the archaeological calling cards of Stone Age artisans during this period is the presence of these small flakes, known as lithics, at a dig site.

Eet ees only hwafér theen.

And artisans they were, because while bashing rocks together does sound like a simple kind of creative effort, if you go out and give it a try you'll find it a lot harder than it sounds (and you may get some odd looks, too). There was an immense amount of knowledge that went into this process, which is why it's so important to put aside the pop culture image of the brainless caveman and to understand that our early ancestors had to rely on their considerable wits to survive. The teaching and learning of these processes would have been vital to our ancestors' continued existence, and the importance of passing on these techniques are likely to be one of the factors involved in the development of spoken language. This is along with another one of my favourite theories of the origin of speech, which is that when we discovered fire and were able to stay up past sunset, we got so bored sitting around doing nothing all night that we started talking just to pass the time.

There was very little leeway when it came to keeping yourself and your group alive in those days, and a single hard winter or encounter with a hostile group could bring an end to a Library of Alexandria's worth of collected knowledge of hunting, skinning, tool making, tracking, animal behaviour and internal culture. That is likely one of the reasons why it took quite so long - nearly 3 million years - for us to claw our way out of the Paleolithic ("Ancient Stone") and up into the dizzying heights of the Mesolithic (Middle Stone) around 10,000BCE. The last Ice Age probably didn't help either.

Into the Meso-verse...

The Mesolithic Age, like all good Ages, happened at different times for different groups. At this point our hardy race had managed to reach every continent in the world (except Antarctica, for the obvious reason that it is The Icy Plateau From Which The Lizard People Reign) - with North and South America being the last characters to join The Human Show. Human footprints dating back 23,000 years have been found in New Mexico's White Sands National Park in the USA, and stone tools have been found in the Amazon that could date all the way back to 30,000BCE.

These feets were made for walkin'.

Stone tech had really come on in leaps and bounds by this point - the hot new craze was composite tools, which were tools made from more than one material, such as wood, bone and plant fibres. We had found new and excited ways of hitting things with pointy rocks, such as axes (hit something very hard), spears (hit something at a short distance), arrows (hit something very far away) and simple daggers (you missed with all the other things and now you are out of luck). A particularly interesting development from this time was the atlatl - a specially weighted spear throwing device that functioned like a lever to add both force and distance to your spear throwing. You may be reminded by the image below of those tennis ball throwing arms dog walkers use, which is unsurprising as they operate under the exact same principle - extending the arm, and adding an additional joint to the throwing process.

Take that, you damned dirty mammoth. Wait, was that the last one?

Now that we'd basically gone everywhere (and eaten a few notable species to extinction), the human race decided it was time to put their collective feet up and finally figure out this new-fangled "farming" that the kids are all yapping about. Our Gigantic Human Brains finally figured out that those little bitter things you find inside fruit could be planted to make (gasp) more fruit, and thus agriculture was born - mostly in lush and beautiful river valleys around the world, such as the Nile in what is now Egypt, the Indus in India, the Tigris in the Middle East, and the Yellow River in China. These river valleys provided enough arable soil to plant ample quantities of crops, and enough running water to develop irrigation (cutting ditches to water your plants - because why go to the water when you can get the water to come to you?).

As the Mesolithic ground its way into the Neolithic (new stone) these settled areas became larger and larger. The science of agriculture meant that a lot of food could be made by not very many people, so other humans were able to specialise in other ways - building better structures to put the food in, writing down how much food we've made, teaching children to grow food, learning how to bonk other people on the head when they try to take our food, and various other essential food-centric life skills. Before you know it, bish-bash-bosh - you have a civilisation going.

And that is where we shall leave it today! I hope you enjoyed dipping your toes into the Stone Age with me, and next time we will be exploring some of these fascinating River Valley Civilisations in the same detail.

But wait! There's more!

How to make your own Cave Paintings:

Our science project this week is to craft your own Stone Age pigments using organic materials. Our ancestors have been creating art for tens of thousands of years using pretty much anything they had to hand (including their own hands), so we shall do the same!

1. Forage for your materials! The kitchen is a safe bet, but the garden or supermarket will yield pigments as well. Search for materials with bright or deep colours!

Here are some examples of household materials you can use to make pigments: berries (particularly blackcurrants), spices (turmeric, paprika), instant coffee, ground up charcoal, ground up chalk.

NOTE: Stone Age pigments were often earthy tones, as they were made from varieties of clay and rock. Common pigments were red and yellow ochre, white chalk, and black charcoal.

2. Get mixing! In separate bowls, mix your dry pigments with a little water (the berries need no extra water, just give them a good squishing) to form a paste. You'll want it to be liquid enough to flow easily, but too much water will dilute the colour.

3. Test them out! Use a thin paintbrush to get a feel for each pigment - does it need more colour? Add pigment! More water? Only add a drop at a time.

4. Use the pictures below for inspiration for your painting - Stone Age cave art often featured detailed paintings of animals, but interestingly the depictions of humans were always spindly and featureless. Why do you suppose that is?

5. Leave them to dry, and when they're ready, feel free to share them below (if you can comment with images. I don't know, it's my first day).