Any tool, partially or entirely, made out of stone
Not to be confused with Tool stone.
The Stone Age
↑ before Homo (Pliocene)
Paleolithic
Lower Paleolithic Early Stone Age
Homo
Control of fire
Stone tools
Middle Paleolithic Middle Stone Age
Homo neanderthalensis
Homo sapiens
Recent African origin of modern humans
Upper Paleolithic Later Stone Age
Behavioral modernity, Atlatl, Origin of the domestic dog
Epipalaeolithic
Natufian
Mesolithic
Microliths, Bow and Arrows, Canoes
Tahunian
Heavy Neolithic
Shepherd Neolithic
Trihedral Neolithic
Pre-Pottery Neolithic
Neolithic
Neolithic Revolution Domestication
Khiamian culture
Pottery Neolithic
Pottery
↓ Chalcolithic
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A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric (particularly Stone Age) cultures that have become extinct. Archaeologists often study such prehistoric societies, and refer to the study of stone tools as lithic analysis. Ethnoarchaeology has been a valuable research field in order to further the understanding and cultural implications of stone tool use and manufacture.[1]
Stone has been used to make a wide variety of different tools throughout history, including arrowheads, spearheads, hand axes, and querns. Stone tools may be made of either ground stone or knapped stone, the latter fashioned by a flintknapper.
Knapped stone tools are made from cryptocrystalline materials such as chert, flint, radiolarite, chalcedony, obsidian, basalt, and quartzite via a process known as lithic reduction. One simple form of reduction is to strike stone flakes from a nucleus (core) of material using a hammerstone or similar hard hammer fabricator. If the goal of the reduction strategy is to produce flakes, the remnant lithic core may be discarded once it has become too small to use. In some strategies, however, a flintknapper reduces the core to a rough unifacial, or bifacial preform, which is further reduced using soft hammer flaking techniques or by pressure flaking the edges.
More complex forms of reduction include the production of highly standardized blades, which can then be fashioned into a variety of tools such as scrapers, knives, sickles, and microliths. In general terms, Knapped stone tools are nearly ubiquitous in all pre-metal-using societies because they are easily manufactured, the tool stone is usually plentiful, and they are easy to transport and sharpen.
^Sillitoe, Paul; Hardy, Karen (2 January 2015). "Living Lithics: ethnoarchaeology in Highland Papua New Guinea". Antiquity. 77 (297): 555–566. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00092619. S2CID 159524906.
A stonetool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stonetool-dependent societies and cultures...
archaeology, a toolstone is a type of stone that is used to manufacture stonetools, or tools that use stone as raw material. Generally speaking, tools that require...
simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stonetools dates back hundreds of millennia, have been observed using tools to make other tools. Early...
The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make stonetools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The...
Oldowan (or Mode I) was a widespread stonetool archaeological industry (style) in prehistory. These early tools were simple, usually made with one or...
the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 3.3 million years ago when the first evidence for stonetool production and use by hominins...
archaeology, a flake tool is a type of stonetool that was used during the Stone Age that was created by striking a flake from a prepared stone core. People during...
ground stone is a category of stonetool formed by the grinding of a coarse-grained toolstone, either purposely or incidentally. Ground stonetools are...
material, stone work has survived which was created during our prehistory or past time. Work carried out by paleolithic societies to create stonetools is more...
after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stonetool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand...
in particular of the Stone Age, lithic reduction is the process of fashioning stones or rocks from their natural state into tools or weapons by removing...
of stonetools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehistoric technology. It extends from the earliest known use of stonetools by...
At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres (10 ha), contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, and birds. Stonetools were used by perhaps...
forms of hand tools. Portable power tools are not hand tools. Hand tools have been used by humans since the Stone Age when stonetools were used for hammering...
fracturing stone through the process of lithic reduction to manufacture stonetools, strikers for flintlock firearms, or to produce flat-faced stones for building...
Basin in Yangyuan County, Hebei, China, most famous for the stonetools discovered there. The tool forms discovered include side and end scrapers, notches...
tools have been found. It includes sites where compelling evidence of hominin tool use has been found, even if no actual tools have been found. Stone...
Sharpening stones, or whetstones, are used to sharpen the edges of steel tools such as knives through grinding and honing. Such stones come in a wide...
history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stonetools by hominins c. 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history...
broad array of techniques used to produce usable tools from various types of stone. The earliest stonetools to date have been found at the site of Lomekwi...
Russia, where there was no well-defined Copper Age between the Stone and Bronze ages. Stonetools were still predominantly used during this period. The archaeological...
destroyed. Differences in stonetool technologies are often used to distinguish between the Middle Stone Age and the Later Stone Age. The larger prepared...
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