Stone Age
is the period in human history
that marks the start of tool production.
This period started 2.6 million years ago
with the invention of the axe
the first and perhaps the most important
stone age tool ever invented.
Today though
owning an axe is kind of unusual
but for most of the human prehistory
it was, the tool that everyone owned and used, for everything.
It was the smartphone of the stone age era.
Two million years however is a long time
and humans back then did not really look like us
but actually looked more like this.
Homo Habilis is one of the earliest species of the genus homo.
They were basically the ancient ancestors of us humans
and they were first, to invent the handaxe.
The first iteration of what we call axes today.
Hand axes were used for a multitude of tasks
one such task was obviously wood cutting.
Not huge trees though
soft and thin trees or branches could be chopped
but this would take at least 10 minutes
and overall this process of cutting wood
was very rough on the hands.
Axes were also used for cutting meat, skinning animals,
breaking bones to reach nutritious bone marrow,
combat and most importantly;
they were used to make and invent new tools.
Hand axes were made by first
finding a sandstone, flint or some type of volcanic stone
and striking it with a tougher, usually rounder stone like quartzite
this process is called knapping.
The impact of these blows knocked off big flakes of stone
producing sharp edges.
From here, I think it's easy to imagine how an ancient knapper
could shape a simple stone into all sorts of sharp tools, including axes.
The earliest evidence for the existence
of anatomically modern humans
was dated to 400,000 years ago.
They lived a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle
meaning: they hunted, they gathered
and they had no permanent settlements, they roamed.
A 100,000 years ago humans were becoming experts at
crafting smaller and more specialised stone tools.
this at some point has led to many inventions
including a Hafted Axe, a direct improvement to the hand axe.
These axes date back to 50,000 years ago
and were widely used in Sahul, a prehistoric continent which
encompassed the present land of Australia, New papua and a few other islands.
Hafted axes changed wood cutting drastically.
The handle reduced self-inflicted damage from blows to almost zero
which made it possible to use more strength when swinging.
Also, the added length of swing size added extra speed on impact.
This made the process of cutting small trees and branches twice faster
and resulted in an overall more efficient way of cutting wood
for the making of fire, tools and temporary settlements.
This huge upgrade of wood cutting technology
must have played some kind of a role
in the rapid increase of tool ingenuity around this period
Most tools require some type of woodwork
and It was at this point in prehistory around 45,000 years ago
that ancient humans invented bows, nets, canoes as well as the boomerang.
The making of a hafted axe required a hand axe
it was then used to chop and shape a fairly thick chunk of wood.
One end of this log was shaped thin by carving
and the other thick like so.
Then a hole was made, first by carving with a handaxe
and then once it was harder to reach coal was used to burn through to the other side.
At the end a handaxe was jammed into the hole
making a fully functional hafted axe.
40,000 years ago ground edge axes were invented.
This advancement came with an improved method of shaping stones into blades.
Stones were no longer hit to knock off flakes but were grinded.
This axe doesn't necessarily look sharper though
so what made it so much more effective?
It's simple, it was made from a tougher stone that did not flake on impact
this means the blade lasted much longer
and the tool could have been swung with full strength
and no hesitation of tool damage.
When making a ground edge axe
ancient humans took great care in choosing the right stone
that did not flake or crack on impact.
The stone would then be grinded against any other stone to shape a blade.
This method takes time but is fairly simple.
12,000 years ago, humans discovered agriculture
this technological advancement changed their lifestyle drastically.
Humans no longer relied on hunting and gathering for food
but rather switched to growing it.
This led to a shift where humans began building large
now permanent settlements that required enormous amounts of resources to maintain.
Many technologies came to be exactly during this period
but axes did not see a significant improvement until
at least 6,000 years ago.
Copper was the first metal used for crafting by ancient humans.
It was likely found many thousands of years ago
but was never successfully used until metallurgy was discovered.
Metallurgy is the science of metals
how they can be heated up, shaped and then used in a solid form.
Ancient humans must have realised that copper can be shaped
to a much finer edge than stone and began using it for tools such as axes.
Copper axes were used for many things but
excelled specifically at the cutting of small trees
branches or this time even, huge oaks.
Copper was not perfect though, as a soft metal it needed many repairs.
It was also scarce, and could only be obtained from a few locations
but luckily, trade in the ancient world, 6,000 years ago was booming
and traces of copper trade can today be found, all around the world.
This newfound fascination of metals by ancient humans
eventually led to a few more improvements but most notably
with the invention of bronze 4,000 years ago, axes became sharper, tougher and had a much bigger blade.
It should now be clear, that over the past 3 million years, axes, went through numerous changes.
They were first used to keep our hunter gatherer ancestors sheltered, warm and well fed
but later they have also served a crucial role
in the evolution of human societies from small tribes to sprawling cities.
And most importantly. Axes...
assisted our ancient ancestors
tens, and hundreds of thousands of years ago
in building the foundation, for the complex society we live in today.
I hope you have enjoyed this video
if you did I think you would be interested in this one.
It's about the origin and evolution of fishing by ancient humans and the mystery of
how they caught sharks without evidence for the use of advanced fishing methods like hooks or nets.