*I don’t usually like to talk about stone tools that often, mainly because it’s not my interest area….and if we’re being honest, because I can’t make a decent flake to save my life. But its okay, I’m not bitter and twisted about it or anything. See, I’m even blogging about tools!
Recent excavations in Malaysia have uncovered STONE TOOLS! But not just any stones tools, no, these are stone axes**. Pretty cool right? It gets better!
It has been reported that the seven tools, found in Perak, have been dated by a lab in Tokyo to be 1.83 million years old! Well, 1.83ish – give or take about 610 000 years or so.
Relevance? If the dates are correct-ish, the tools are the oldest axes in the world. Yes, we do have stone tools occurring in Africa quite early on in the piece, but we haven’t seen axes until about 1.6ish million years old.
Basically, this is just reinforcement of the idea the archaeology in South East Asia is a pain in the proverbial ass. Wait! Don’t get all judgemental and disgruntled about it. I mean it in the nicest way possible. The archaeology of the region is extremely complex even in itself; things get far messier when we look at the bigger picture of the human story.
If tools are indicative of a cultural presence, then we have possible habitation of Malaysia by hominins 1.8MYA. The oldest remains found in the area connected to the tools were dated to 10 000 years. Is it simply a case of poor preservation preventing the recovery of a larger and unequivocally important part of the human story?
Recent excavations in Malaysia have uncovered STONE TOOLS! But not just any stones tools, no, these are stone axes**. Pretty cool right? It gets better!
It has been reported that the seven tools, found in Perak, have been dated by a lab in Tokyo to be 1.83 million years old! Well, 1.83ish – give or take about 610 000 years or so.
Relevance? If the dates are correct-ish, the tools are the oldest axes in the world. Yes, we do have stone tools occurring in Africa quite early on in the piece, but we haven’t seen axes until about 1.6ish million years old.
Basically, this is just reinforcement of the idea the archaeology in South East Asia is a pain in the proverbial ass. Wait! Don’t get all judgemental and disgruntled about it. I mean it in the nicest way possible. The archaeology of the region is extremely complex even in itself; things get far messier when we look at the bigger picture of the human story.
If tools are indicative of a cultural presence, then we have possible habitation of Malaysia by hominins 1.8MYA. The oldest remains found in the area connected to the tools were dated to 10 000 years. Is it simply a case of poor preservation preventing the recovery of a larger and unequivocally important part of the human story?
The study still needs to be looked at by other researchers, but if rocks get your socks off, keep watch on this one.
*Not one of the tools in question
*Not one of the tools in question
**No, I can’t make axes either…..shut up.
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