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To: RaceBannon
Nice Ape.

How do they know the broken sharp stone are tools? Was there a handle strapped to one of them?

Too much guessing called science, this specimen in invalid.

The way archaeologists know about stone tools is they learn to make them, and they carefully examine the pieces produced when tools are made. Some people specialize largely in that one particular field. One of my professors had a room full of broken rocks gathered from streams, debris fields, alluvial deposits and all sorts of other places. After much study he was able to determine which were purposefully made and which were natural.

Microwear analysis is a useful technique as well. Under a microscope (often an electron microscope) you can tell if there is wear, and if it is regular. (This is also useful for examining teeth, to get some idea of diet.)

So, not as much guesswork as you might have thought. And that is just the beginning of the studies available.

This specimen is only invalid if you have closed your mind to learning.

261 posted on 01/01/2006 3:14:42 PM PST by Coyoteman (I love the sound of beta decay in the morning!)
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To: Coyoteman
So, not as much guesswork as you might have thought.

When you don't know anything, it's very easy to imagine that there's nothing to know.

264 posted on 01/01/2006 3:52:03 PM PST by PatrickHenry (Virtual Ignore for trolls, lunatics, dotards, common scolds, & incurable ignoramuses.)
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To: Coyoteman; RaceBannon
One of our fellow FReepers (I don't remember who) is an expert "flintknapper" and reading some of the information he's posted or linked to shows that properly manufactured stone tools are easily distinguished from stones with naturally occurring wear.

Googol "flintknapping".
268 posted on 01/01/2006 4:07:54 PM PST by spinestein (All journalists today are paid advocates for someone's agenda.)
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To: Coyoteman

you're right.

You honestly expect someting that is supposed to be 1 MILLION years old to not age or wear so that after 1 MILLION years it still looks like it did when it was made? Enough to identify it?

You guys are hilarious! :)

No, Really, some of the theories are so funny, because no one in their right mind expects an American Indian arrowhead from the 1600's to be found as intact as any of these so-called stone tools from Lake Turkana appear to be...


277 posted on 01/01/2006 5:29:52 PM PST by RaceBannon ((Prov 28:1 KJV) The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.)
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