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Archeology: Stone Age Innovations Happened Independently Rather Than

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  • Archeology: Stone Age Innovations Happened Independently Rather Than

    STONE AGE INNOVATIONS HAPPENED INDEPENDENTLY RATHER THAN SPREADING FROM AFRICA

    Daily Digest
    Sept 26 2014

    By Ian Lang, Daily Digest News

    Regarding Levallois technology circa 325k years ago (using flakes
    from stones to create handy tools), it's commonly believed that the
    technology originated in Africa and spread as humans migrated. Not so,
    say researchers from Royal Holloway and the University of London: Based
    on new evidence found in Armenia, it appears that localized groups
    were developing similar technologies concurrently. The findings help
    reshape the way we think about early human technology and migration.

    "The discovery of thousands of stone artifacts preserved at this unique
    site provides a major new insight into how Stone Age tools developed
    during a period of profound human behavioural and biological change",
    said Dr Simon Blockley from the Department of Geography at Royal
    Holloway. "The people who lived there 325,000 years ago were much
    more innovative than previously thought, using a combination of two
    different technologies to make tools that were extremely important
    for the mobile hunter-gatherers of the time."

    By analyzing the volcanic material preserving the Armenian site,
    researchers were able to date the tools found to between 325k and 335k
    years ago - about the time the Levallois technology was believed to
    have originated in Africa. Instead, the people of the area appear
    to have developed it themselves out of biface, a more primitive
    technology. This would indicate that localized groups of early humans
    were generally more innovative than they were previously given credit.

    "Our findings challenge the theory held by many archaeologists that
    Levallois technology was invented in Africa and spread to Eurasia as
    the human population expanded. Due to our ability to accurately date
    the site in Armenia, we now have the first clear evidence that this
    significant development in human innovation occurred independently
    within different populations."

    Levallois differs significantly from biface. With biface, stones were
    chipped and flaked from two sides to create large tools such as axes
    and spear heads. With Levallois, the flakes are not discarded as waste,
    but created purposefully to be used as smaller, easier to carry tools
    like hand knives.

    http://dailydigestnews.com/2014/09/stone-age-innovations-happened-independently-rather-than-spreading-from-africa/

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