Earliest Known Stone Tools Planted the Seeds of Communication and Language

Popular Archaeology ^ | Tuesday, January 13, 2015 | UC Berkeley Press Release

[SunkenCiv]

Oldowan stone-knapping dates back to the Lower Paleolithic period in eastern Africa, and remained largely unchanged for 700,000 years until more sophisticated Acheulean hand-axes and cleavers, which marked the next generation of stone tool technology, came on the scene. It was practiced by some of our earliest ancestors, such as Homo habilis and the even older Australopithecus garhi, who walked on two legs, but whose facial features and brain size were closer to those of apes.

In testing five different ways to convey Oldowan stone-knapping skills to more than 180 college students, the researchers found that the demonstration that used spoken communication - versus imitation, non-verbal presentations or gestures - yielded the highest volume and quality of flakes in the least amount of time and with the least waste.

To measure the rate of transmission of the ancient butchery technology, and establish whether more complex communication such as language would get the best results, study volunteers were divided into five- or 10-member "learning chains." The head of the chain received a knapping demonstration, the raw materials and five minutes to try their hand at it. That person then showed it to the next person in the chain, who in turn showed the next person, and so on. Their competence picked up significantly with verbal instruction...

Without language, one can assume that a hominin version of, say, Steve Jobs would have been hard-pressed to pass on visionary ideas. Still, the seeds of language, teaching and learning were planted due to the demand for Oldowan tools, the study suggests, and at some point hominins got better at communicating, hence the advent of Acheulean hand-axes and cleavers some 1.7 million years ago.

[eartrumpet]

We had stone age tribes a few hundred years ago, too. But things changed.

[Defiant]

It does help if you can say "Yer not doin' it right!"

That's why they invented women!

[TigersEye]

And that’s when man invented cursing ... which brings us back to the origins of language. ;^)

[moovova]

I wish I had a time machine. Talk about reality TV.

[P.O.E.]

It does help if you can say "Yer not doin' it right!"

Probably led to the invention of beer so they had something to drink while they stood around and watched.

[TigersEye]

Which led to beer maidens ... so tell me again how much you hate us slackers. ;^)

[Unam Sanctam]

The experiment didn’t say that the technology couldn’t be passed on without language, just that language was more efficient. I would think that was an obvious conclusion, but it doesn’t tell us what really happened during the 700,000 years the technology was used, i.e., whether language was used or not.

[SunkenCiv]

I wholeheartedly agree, but I also see their point.