The 45,000 stone tools were found in cave in Jordan
Ever since the Paleolithic period, human ancestors have managed to divide their work based on the primitive tools that they used.
A team of archaeologists has discovered 45,000 year old stone tools inside a cave in Jordan.
The researchers described their findings in a study published in the Journal of Human Evolution.
Mary Stiner and Steve Kuhn, two of the archaeologists who discovered the ancient stone tools, said that division and organization of labor in prehistoric times was very important.
Anthropologists Aaron Jonas Stutz and Liv Nilsson Stutz recently discovered thousands of stone tools in Mughr el-Hamamah.
According to them, the stone tools were designed for specific purposes.
Similar to our cutlery today, which we use for specific tasks, the 45,000 year old stone tools revealed cutting flakes, bladed, points and scrapers, which were used for different activities by our early ancestors.
The anthropologists started their excavations in the Jordan cave back in 2010, after they received a financial support from the National Science Foundation.
Aaron, researcher at Emory’s Oxford College, talked about their recent findings saying that the stone tools date back to almost 45,000 years ago, to the Upper Paleolithic period in the Near East.
Aaron added that thanks to these ancient stone tools they were able to confirm that the Upper Paleolithic started in that region no later than 42,000 years ago.
The 45,000 year old stone tools were discovered in the Levantine, which is a corridor between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.
According to the researchers, many generations that were transitioning to Eurasia have passed through, looking for shelter and food.
The experts do not know for sure if the ancient humans who used these artifacts were modern humans or Neanderthals.
However, they have reasons to believe that the humans who passed through these regions were a mix of different populations.
The discoveries at the Mughr el-Hamamah site suggest that the ancient humans were starting to live their lives in these regions, working and forming families in a more sophisticated way.
The researchers believe that more than one family shared a space and lived together.
Image Source: sciencedaily
