A team of researchers from several Spanish institutions collaborated with two French colleagues and another German colleague in a 1.2-million-year-old obsidian hatchet-making workshop in Ethiopia’s Awash Valley. I foundIn their paper published in the journal Natural ecology and evolutionthe group describes the location, condition and age of the hatchet found.
The Stone Age lasted from about 2.6 million years ago until about 3300 BC when the Bronze Age began. Historians commonly classify the eras as Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic. Previous research indicates that the ‘napping workshop’ emerged in Middle Pleistocene Europe, approximately 774,000 to 129,000 years ago.
A workshop that evolved as a tool-making has evolved into a skill. The individual who developed such skills worked together in workshops to make full use of the tools required by people in the general field, one such tool being the hatchet, used for chopping and weaponry. could be used as
Hatchet was made by chipping a small piece of stone to create a sharp blade. They weren’t attached to anything. I simply held it in my hand during use. The stones used were typically flint and later obsidian (a type of volcanic glass).even obsidian present day, It is considered to be a difficult material to handle because it is rough to the touch.In this new effort, researchers found evidence of obsidian hatchet napping workshop Established much earlier than anything seen before.
Researchers were working at the Melka Kunture excavation site when they discovered a hatchet buried in a layer of sediment. They soon found more.They found 578 in all, and all but three were made of obsidian. Dating of peripheral materials shaft showed them to be about 1.2 million years old.
Studies of axes have shown that they are all made in a similar manner, indicating that researchers have uncovered ancient napping workshops. It is the oldest known example and the first outside of Europe. Researchers say the work was done so long ago that they can’t even identify the humans who made them.
For more information:
Margherita Mussi et al, Simbiro III (Melka Kunture, Upper Awash, Ethiopia) a surge in obsidian mining over 1.2 million years ago, Natural ecology and evolution (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01970-1
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Quote: A 1.2-million-year-old obsidian handaxe-making workshop found in Ethiopia (January 26, 2023) was posted on January 26, 2023 at https://phys.org/news/2023-01-obsidian-handaxe Taken from -making-workshop-million-years.html
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