TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY IN THE STONE AGE* by R.J. Forbes

Technology is as old as man himself. 

THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF TOOL-MAKING

The regular shaping of such tools or aids never became a habit with apes; but it did become a habit with man.

 Man's earliest natural tools were his hands and his teeth. The larger and more efficiently organized cerebrum of early man allowed him slowly to grope toward supplementing his natural tools. Not only the development of manual activity but also the development of speech guided man's earliest tool-making activities. 

EARLY STONE TOOLS

The first tools were of stone, and the earliest stone tools (called "eoliths," because they date from the Eolithic or earliest Stone age period over a million years ago) were pebbles already preshaped by nature and simply picked up from a river bed. Very slowly man learned to shape such stones by striking

About a hundred thousand years ago primitive man was no longer content with his chopper tool and pointed flakes; he began to make more specialized tools: pear-shaped "hand axes," scrapers, knives, pointed stones, and so forth

The growing range and complexity of man's tools ran parallel to the development of his activities and achievements in other respects. 

 THE USE OF FIRE

Man's earliest conquest was fire. Food could be cooked on top of heated stones and even in glowing embers. The fuel used by prehistoric man was the most primitive kind. Strangely enough, prehistoric man seldom used convenient outcroppings of coal and lignite. 

ADVANCES IN STONE TOOLS

The earlier technique had been to shape a stone tool by beating it against a hammerstone or between a hammer and a stone anvil, but as more suitable stones for tool-making were found, flaking techniques were more widely used. We must remember, however, that man did not use stone tools only. 

THE BEGINNINGS OF MINING

Good flaking stones that could be used for tools and weapons were not too common. Prehistoric men probably knew where to dig for flint, presumably by following surface outcroppings.

MAN AT THE DAWN OF HISTORY

Although early man undoubtedly first utilized wooden and bone implements, only his stone tools have survived the ravages of time, so human prehistory is divided among the Stone Ages (Eolithic, Paleolithic, and Neolithic), with these tools improving in quality and usability over a long period of time. Man had already discovered fire and had crude weapons. With the beginnings of metallurgy, the Stone Age of man comes to an end; with the beginnings of writing, prehistory comes to an end; with the beginnings of agriculture, man's parasitism on nature gives way to co-operation with nature.