On Tue, 10 Mar 1998 Dick Dawson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> We've evolved using other tools for handling meat: hands and cultural
> adaptations: stone tools.  We got into stone tools long before the
> rise of Homo; stone tools appropriate for processing animals for
> meat, hides and other tool material, not for processing grain until
> very recently (5000-8000ya, then as microblades for scythes and
> concurrent with rise of agriculture demonstrated by other artifacts).

I wuld deny that there is any strong evidence that stone tools were around
before the rise of Homo, although they cannot be unequivocally linked with
Homo.  The earliest stone tools are at Gona, Ethiopia at 2.52+/-0.08 Ma
(Semaw et al 1997) the next are at Riwat, Pakistan (Dennel et al.  1988)
at 1.90-2.01 Ma, the next are Oldowan tools at c. 1.8 Ma in various
African sites.  The earlist Homo specimens are H. habilis at Olduvai
1.80+/-0.08 Ma (Johanson et al 1887), and H. erectus in Java 1.6-1.8 Ma
(Swisher et al 1994) and possibly at Dmanisi, Georgia 1.77-1.95 Ma (White
et al 1994). These dates and their wide geographical spread suggest that
we have not yet found the earliest Homo, and given the sparseness of the
stone tool finds, it is quite possible that Homo and tools appear about
the same time.

References

Dennel, RW, Rendell, H & Hailwood, E (1988) Early tool-making in Asia:
two-million-year-old artefacts in Pakistan. Antiquity 62 (234) 98-106

Johanson, DC et al. (1987) New partial skeleton of Homo habilis from
Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania Nature, 327 205-209

Semaw, S, Renne, P, Harris, JWK, Feibel, CS, Bernor, RL, Fesseha, N &
Mowbray, K (1997) 2.5-million-year-old stone tools from Gona, Ethiopia.
Nature 385 333-336

Swisher, CC, Curtis, GH, Jacob, T, Getty, AG, Suprijo, A & Widiasmoro
(1994) Age of the earliest known hominids in Java Indonesia. Science 263
1118-1121

White, TD, Suwa, G & Asfaw, B (1994) Nature 371 306-312

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 Dr. Andrew Millard                              [log in to unmask]
 Department of Archaeology, University of Durham,   Tel: +44 191 374 4757
 South Road, Durham. DH1 3LE. United Kingdom.       Fax: +44 191 374 3619
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