Early humans crossed a threshold around 75,000 years ago, when they started painting symbols, carving patterns and making jewelry . A new study found they also began to use fire to make tools around that time. Until now, this complex, multi-step process for tool making was only known to occur as recently as 25,000 years ago in Europe. But the new findings show this breakthrough occurred much earlier, and in Africa , not Europe. By heating up stones in a fire before chipping away at them to make blades, early humans could make tools sharper and produce them more efficiently. Scientists think this advancement represents a link between the earlier use of fire for cooking and warmth, and the later production of ceramics and metals. “Around 800,000 years ago we see some of the first evidence for hominid controlled use of fire,” said study leader Kyle Brown, a graduate student in archaeology at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and at Arizona State University. “And then at about 10,000 years ago we see evidence for production of ceramics. And at about 5,000 years ago we see metal working.” “The heat treatment of tools is sort of a bridging… Read full this story
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