Was the Stone Age actually the Age of Wood?
- New research indicates that the Stone Age characterized by the use of stone tools by humans might as accurately be described as the ‘Wood Age’.
- A recently-published study of around 300,000-400,000 year old wooden artefacts indicated that these were not simply “sharpened sticks” but “technologically advanced tools” which required skill, precision, and time to build.
- In total, 187 wooden artifacts could be identified demonstrating a broad spectrum of wood-working techniques”
Periodising human prehistory
- In the 19th century, came up with the first scientifically rigorous periodisation of human prehistory into Stone Age, then Bronze Age, and finally, Iron Age.
- The Stone Age began when hominids first picked up stone tools, some 3.4 million years ago (mya), in modern-day Ethiopia.
- It is further divided into three periods
- Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) - use of rudimentary stone tools, and a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
- Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) - a transitional phase.
- Neolithic (New Stone Age). - development of settled agriculture, and the domestication of animals.
Preservation bias
- Stone Age sites across the world also show evidence of a number of other materials being used, from bones and antlers, to clay, and some (very limited) metalworking.
- Evidence of woodworking, however, has been far more limited even though wood would have been an abundant resource.
- The earliest evidence of the use of wood, seen in the form of wooden dwellings, has been dated to only 700,000 BP over two and a half million years after the earliest evidence of stone tools.
What Schöningen reveals
- Due to the damp and oxygen-less conditions of the site’s soil, wood and other organic matter could not decompose leading to the most well-preserved assemblage of prehistoric wooden artifacts in the world.
- This discovery of the world’s oldest preserved hunting weapons by negating the prevailing consensus that humans lived as simple scavengers till 40,000 years ago.
- The new study shone further light on the technological complexity of Schöningen’s wooden artifacts.