Weapons And Tools Of The Stone Age

The Stone Age relates to prehistoric times, starting around 2.6 million years ago. It is so name due the fact that palaeontologists have uncovered the first evidence that humans were using stone tools at this time. The stone age lasted until about 3,300 BC, (at which point the Bronze Age began), and covers approximately 99% of our human technological history. This time is composed of 3 eras: the Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), and Neolithic (New Stone Age), the latter of which is probably the most well-known as this was when the famous stone monuments of Stonehenge and Avebury were constructed.

Hunting And Gathering In The Stone Age

The Earth was in an ice age for much of the Palaeolithic period, with humans living in small nomadic groups. Theirs was was the classic hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Researchers of the Stone Age have found that humans hunted larger animals like mastodons, sabre-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, giant bison, and deer. Tools were needed to hunt, kill, and eat prey as well as to make clothes and living accommodation.

Spears

Stone age man was undoubtedly tough, but you don’t want to be bare-knuckle wrestling a sabre-tooth tiger or woolly mammoth! Spears were the hunting and warring weapon of choice. They were constructed of wood, which was sharpened into a triangular leaf shape. A composite spear was sometimes used, and this was a wood shaft tied to a sharp stone blade, (typically flint), using plant fibres or animal tendons.

Arrows

Similarly, humans of the period made bows and arrows with a wooden shaft that was sharpened to a pointed head with a tail made of feathers. Explosive materials were sometimes added to the end of the shaft, which for them probably represented advanced ballistics. Arrows were used more for warfare than hunting as they presumably wouldn’t stop a mammoth or sabre-tooth.

Axes

Axes are thought to have been used in close combat, and rocks were used to sharpen them to a point. They were also used when preparing food, and I don’t mean as if when dicing an onion! Rather, they were used on hunted-and-killed animals, to chop through bone, tendons and sinew. They were also used for woodcutting and clearing undergrowth.

Harpoons

By the Neolithic period, towards the end of the Stone Age, archaeological evidence suggests that harpoons were used (with a prey-retrieval rope attached) to kill whales, tuna, and swordfish. Nets were also used to trap prey and these were constructed from plant fibres, animal sinews, and perhaps even tree branches.

Moving On To Tools

The era defining tool was probably the Hammerstone. Made of hard-wearing stone such as sandstone, quartzite and limestone, it was used to smash, crush or break animal bones or other stones. Stone Age man was not a one-dimensional technician and by the end of the stone age there is evidence that they were using bone, ivory and antler. Bone or ivory was turned into flute and needles and antler into antler tools, thought to be used in the construction process of Stonehenge. Finally, by the late Stone Age, humans had become more technologically advanced, and there is evidence that drills and reamers were being made and used for the joinery of wood.