Making Tools

The first known tools were made by Homo habilis more than 2 million years ago. These were very simple tools made from pebbles. Gradually tools became more advanced. People soon discovered that flint was one of the best tool-making materials. Not only was it very hard, but it could also be chipped into many different shapes and sizes.

Using a pebble, a hard stick or an antler as a hammer, early people shaped flints into sharp-edged hand axes, knives, scrapers and choppers. When blunt, the edges were resharpened with further chipping. Hand axes are among the oldest-known tools, with some dating from about 2 million years ago. They were used for cutting plants, meat and skins.

Flint, bone and antler were also used for making weapons. Bows and arrows were first used about 15,000 years ago. About 7,000 years ago, people in the Middle East learned how to make metal tools from copper. By 3000 BC they were using a stronger alloy of copper – the Bronze Age had begun.

Stone Age tools included lamps, cutters and spearheads. For 98 per cent of the time that people have lived on Earth, their tools have been made from stone, bone, wood, ivory and antler.