Stone tools

• The evolution of stone tools reflects how our brains evolved over time
• Early Stone Age tools - 1.5 million years ago

  • Used basic pebble tools by smashing rocks together
  • These tools had simple uses, such as cracking nuts
• Late Stone Age tools - 40,000 years ago

  • More advanced species used pointed arrowheads, spears and hooks
  • Tasks such as fishing and hunting could be carried out
• Radiometric carbon dating is used to determine the age of fossils and artifacts by measuring the amount of radioactive carbon-14 in the sample and comparing it to the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere now.
• Stratifying rock layers show us the order of the rock layers and the time they were formed. The older the rock the more likely the tool is old