The basic tools humans made in the Stone Age were hammerstones, blade tools, flake tools, pebble tools, bifacial tools, sharpened sticks, bows and arrows, and harpoons. These tools were used for hunting prey, plowing and harvesting crops, and as a weapon to protect themselves.
The Stone Age started about 2.6 million years ago and ended about 3,300 BC at the start of the Bronze Age. During the Stone Age, the Earth underwent an Ice Age, so people needed tools to prey on animals for food, protect themselves from wild animals, and gain warm, portable clothes and structures to live.
The Stone Age is divided into three eras; Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic. According to britanica.com, people of the earliest Stone Age, that is the Paleolithic period, developed four fundamental traditions in the crafting of stone tools; pebble tool tradition, bifacial tool tradition or hand-ax tradition, flake tool tradition, and blade tool tradition.
What Tools Were Made In The Stone Age
The following are some of the major tools humans made in the stone age:
Hammerstone
Hammerstone was a hard stone used to break and fracture other stones to craft sharp edges and other stone tools. It might also be used for striking and breaking animal bones.
Chopper
Chopper was a stone with sharp edges that were used for cutting meat, breaking bones, and removing and cutting the hide and fur of the hunt. People of the late Stone Age (Neolithic) also practiced agriculture, so they might have used choppers for harvesting crops.
Cleaver
Cleaver was a hand ax-like tool made up of stone with a sharpened edge. It was similar to a large knife that was used for cutting meat and breaking soft bones. It might also be used for digging soil.
Axe
Axe was a tool made up of a sharp-edged stone fitted in a wood handle from the other side. Stone age people used it for hunting animals, cutting trees, and as a weapon.
Harpoons And Nets
Evidence reveals that people of the late Stone Age (Neolithic) used harpoons to hunt large aquatic animals, such as tuna and whales, etc. To pull the hunt, a rope probably made from tree fiber was tied with the harpoon.
They also used nets to catch fish as well as to trap land animals. They made nets from tree branches or tree fibers. They probably used nets for hunting both land and aquatic animals.
Sharpened Sticks
Sharpened stick is believed to be one of the tools used by the earliest people throughout the world. Such sticks were used as a weapon against wild animals as well as for hunting.
Bows And Arrows
Evidence shows that bows and arrows were used as a weapon in wars and for hunting animals more than 61,000 years ago. Stone Age people made arrows from wood or animal bones with a pointed and sharpened head and a tail of feathers. The bow was made of wood and something with elasticity, probably an animal’s sinew or an elastic tree fiber.
Spears
The Stone Age people made spears from long woods with one end sharpened and shaped like a leaf. They also made spears using a long stick tied to a small sharpened stone through a plant fiber or animal sinew.
Spears were effective and deadly tools used as a weapon in close combat and for hunting animals.
Pottery
The Stone Age people also made pottery probably for cooking and eating food. In Japan, fragments of pottery were discovered at an archeological site that dates back to 16,000 years ago. It was made up of clay and is considered the oldest known pottery.
