文档介绍：Science, Technology and Society in Ancient Times
Group 10
Stone Age
THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF TOOL-MAKING
Only primates use "tools" in the real sense of the word.
The finer muscle structure of the nervous mechanism set them apart from other primates.
The advanced functional anatomy of the human hand led to the origin of tool-making.
The larger and more anized cerebrum of man allowed him to slowly grope toward
supplementing his natural tools.
Man's earliest natural tools were his hands and his teeth.
EARLY STONE TOOLS
The first tools ever were of stone.
The earliest stone tools were pebbles already preshaped by nature and simply picked up from
a river bed
The earliest stone tool were called eoliths because they date from the Eolithic or earliest Stone age.
The Eolithic period was over a million years ago.
One hundred thousand years ago, man started to make more specialized tools:
pear-shaped "hand axes", scrapers, knives, pointed stones, etc.
THE USE OF FIRE
Man's earliest conquest was fire.
Man's first use of fire came from fires found in nature (. forest fires).
The percussion method was discovered by man only during Paleolithic times (one million to 8000 BC).
Fire was used to warm man's body and to cook food.
The birth of cooking led to many advances such as increasing the range of foodstuffs of man,
the preservation of some foods through drying, and baking.
Cooking led to the invention many things such as suitable containers, kitchen utensils and other things.
Many industrial processes involving heat, such as metallurgy, pottery, and brewing used the accumulated experience of prehistoric cooking.
ADVANCES IN STONE TOOLS
By 15000 BC more differentiated and better tools were being made in Europe and the Near East.
As more suitable stones for tool-making were found, flaking techniques became widely used.
Flint, obsidian, or fine-grained lava could be used for flaking.
The 'burin', of which over twenty types were used by the early nomadic food gatherers,