Four giant stone hand axes were recovered from the the dry basin of Lake Makgadikgadi in the Kalahari Desert. Posted on 09/12/2009 5:44:18 PM PDT by decimon
Four giant stone hand axes were recovered from the the dry basin of Lake Makgadikgadi in the Kalahari Desert.
Oxford University researchers have unearthed new evidence from the lake basin in Botswana that suggests that the region was once much drier and wetter than it is today.
They have documented thousands of stone tools on the lake bed, which sheds new light on how humans in Africa adapted to several substantial climate change events during the period that coincided with the last Ice Age in Europe.
Researchers from the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford are surveying the now-dry basin of Lake Makgadikgadi in the Kalahari Desert, which at 66,000 square kilometres is about the same size of present day Lake Victoria.
Their research was prompted by the discovery of the first of what are believed to be the world’s largest stone tools on the bed of the lake. Although the first find was made in the 1990s, the discovery of four giant axes has not been scientifically reported until now. Four giant stone hand axes, measuring over 30 cm long and of uncertain age, were recovered from the lake basin.
(Excerpt) Read more at physorg.com ...
Judging from the size of the axes, I ax you, jus’ how large a human beans were walkin’ around at the bottom of that lake way back then?
They look more like spear heads.
I’m no archeologist so how do they know these are axe heads and not adzes or plows or some other implement?
I’m not either but I am a flint knapper and a collector of flint artifacts. I’ve personally found large flint biface’s on the ranch, some as long as 15 inches and about 1 inch thick. One explanation could be they’re just the result of spawling down a much larger stone so they’re easier to transport back; I do the same thing myself. Another idea, which was suggested by a friend of mine who is an archeologist, seems to think they carried large biface’s with them so they could strike off smaller and sharper flakes, as they needed them.
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Thanks decimon. Loved this:suggests that the region was once much drier and wetter than it is todayTo all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
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Would not large axes be needed to feel large trees that were later transported over water - and the boat presumably sinking taking the axes with it?
An early S.A.L.T. (Stone Axe Limitation Treaty) disposal site?
suggests that the region was once much drier and wetter than it is today
Elementary, my dear Wetson. "once" is not "at once." The relative drier, or wetter, is to the once is as at once it was either the drier or the wetter. Can no one see this?
Simultaneously?
Have they “axed” the locals what they know about these?
Logs don’t generally need a boat to make a trip over water. :’)
Careful reader award!
Those Oxford University researchers, doncha know.
Yes they do. Logs in tow. Look up a great documentary called “Alone in the Wilderness” about a gut building his log cabin in Alaska where he tows the trees he felled in his boat.
How many trees were growing in his boat?
LOL!!! You win!
Mine was in reference to the idea that logs sink.
Tall enough to keep their noses above water.
Logs do sink.
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