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Archeology: Stone Age Tools Did Not Originate From Africa, Toolmakin

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  • Archeology: Stone Age Tools Did Not Originate From Africa, Toolmakin

    STONE AGE TOOLS DID NOT ORIGINATE FROM AFRICA, TOOLMAKING SKILLS DEVELOPED INDEPENDENTLY WORLDWIDE

    TechTimes
    Sept 26 2014

    By Rhodi Lee

    A method of Stone Age tool production is believed to have its
    origins in Africa but findings of a new study challenges this
    notion with evidence that suggests different populations around the
    world independently developed their tool-making skills during the
    Paleolithic Era.

    Scientists have argued that a tool-making technology known as the
    Levallois technique was invented in Africa and that the method
    eventually spread to Eurasia following the migration of humans
    from Africa. An analysis of stone artifacts in Armenia, however,
    suggests otherwise.

    In a new discovery described in the journal Science on Sept. 25, a
    group of researchers examined almost 3,000 stone artifacts that were
    excavated from Nor Geghi 1 (NG1), an archeological site in Armenia
    that was preserved by two lava flows. By analyzing and dating the
    volcanic ash between these lava flows, the researchers found that the
    artifacts at the site existed between 200,000 and 400,000 years ago,
    the era associated with the earliest Levallois tools in Africa.

    The researchers also found that the people who lived in the area
    thousands of years ago used both Levallois and a more rugged
    tool-making method called bifacial technology at the same time
    providing the earliest evidence that these technologies existed
    together and suggesting that the people there may have gradually
    developed Levallois technique from bifacial technology.

    "We wouldn't have found this mixture if the Levallois technology had
    simply replaced the old method," said study researcher Daniel Adler,
    from the University of Connecticut in Storrs. "The communities probably
    worked out for themselves how to make bifacial tools and then it was
    a short step to the Levallois method."

    Study researcher Simon Blockley, from the Department of Geography at
    the Royal Holloway, University of London, said that the artifacts has
    helped shed light on the evolution of Stone Age tools at a time when
    humans underwent profound biological and behavioral changes.

    He said that the people who live at the site thousands of years ago
    appear to be more innovative than they were given credit for as they
    have utilized a duo of different tool-making technologies to come
    up with tools that are crucial for mobile hunter-gatherers during
    the period.

    "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," Blockley said. "We now have the first
    clear evidence that this significant development in human innovation
    occurred independently within different populations."

    http://www.techtimes.com/articles/16534/20140926/stone-age-tools-did-not-originate-from-africa-toolmaking-skills-developed-independently-worldwide.htm



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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