Stone Age Innovators

How technology exchange between modern humans, archaic Homo sapiens, and Neanderthals drove progress

For the first few million years of human evolution, human tools and technology evolved slowly. By 3.3 million years ago, millions of years after we’d split from the chimpanzees, our ancestors had only gotten as far as making chipped stone flakes and crude chopping tools. Two million years ago, stone hand axes appeared. Around a million years ago, occasional traces of fire suggest some primitive humans used fire, but struggled to make it.

Starting 500,000 years ago, technology became far more modern. Stone-tipped spears appeared, and fire use became common, and widespread. Axes replaced the hand-axe. People made beaded necklaces, and cave paintings. The bow and arrow appeared, making humans more effective as hunters, and more deadly as fighters.

This technological revolution doesn’t seem to be the work of any single people. Instead, innovations appear to arise in different groups- modern Homo sapiens, primitive sapiens, even Neanderthals- then spread. Surprisingly, many of these innovations seem to be one-offs: rather than being independently invented by different peoples, they’re invented once, then shared widely. That implies cultural evolution may have depended on the creativity of single individuals- stone age inventors, artists, geniuses- but also the exchange of ideas between populations.

In other words, prehistoric technology may have developed much as it does today.

The Tip of the Spear

Early spears were likely simple, wooden throwing spears, like those used by Neanderthals. The soft, wooden tips of these spears would have quickly dulled and broken, and the simple penetrating injuries they caused made it hard to kill big game. Then, 500,000 years ago, in southern Africa, someone- possibly primitive Homo sapiens— bound a sharp stone blade to the spear’s tip.

Spearpoint, Middle Stone Age (50,000-300,000 ya), South Serengeti, Tanzania. The tip was probably broken striking bone. (Nick Longrich photo)

Made using a sophisticated flintknapping method, the Levallois technique, the stone spearpoint was sharper, and stronger. It made a wide cut, which bled quickly, making the spear more lethal when hunting big game- or warring with other humans.

300,000 years ago, spearpoints and the Levallois technique appeared in East Africa, North Africa, the Middle East, and around 250,000 years ago, the spearpoint reached Europe— and was used by Neanderthals.

The speartpoint’s invention would change warfare— it would be wielded by the soldiers of Alexander, by the Roman legions, the Aztec Empire, and the Zulu. But the hafted spearpoint is also significant as the oldest evidence for a composite tool— made by binding different components and materials together. Spearpoints were revolutionary not just as weapons, but as a new way to create tools.

Firemaking

Traces of charcoal and ash suggest our ancestors experimented with fire as much as a million years ago, but early fire use wasn’t common or widespread. 400,000 years ago, charcoal, burnt bones and other hints of fire became common in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

If you’ve ever gone camping, then you know that keeping the fire going is easy- as it burns down, just throw more wood on the coals. Starting the fire is the hard part. It follows that the barrier to fire use was probably not understanding fire’s advantages, but simply making it. If so, then the widespread use of fire likely marks the invention of a fire starting technique- most likely, the fire drill. The fire drill, a hardwood stick rapidly spun against another piece of wood to create friction, is still used in Africa today by people like the Bushmen, Hadzabe, and Maasai to kindle fire, and historically by Australian Aborigines and American Indians.

Fire started with a fire drill technique, where a softwood block drilled to create heat and tinder. Hadzabe people, Lake Eyasi, Tanzania (photo by Nick Longrich).

But the oldest evidence for regular use of fire doesn’t come from Africa, but Europe- at the time, inhabited by Neanderthals. It’s possible this is an artifact- Europe has more archaeologists than Africa, so it’s better studied. But is it possible that Neanderthals mastered fire before us?

It’s a shocking idea— but why not? Neanderthal brains were as big as ours- they used them for something. Living through the cold winters of Ice Age Europe, they had more reason to experiment with firemaking than humans in the Serengeti or Kalahari . Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes, and that must have applied to Neanderthals as much as us.

The Axe

The hand-axe, or Acheulian biface, was a simple, edged stone tool that could be held in the hand to work wood, or butcher animals. The hand axe appeared around 1.75 million years ago, and was used by many different species- Homo erectus, Neanderthals, primitive Homo sapiens. Around 300,000 years ago in Africa, hand-axes slowly disappeared. A new technology, the “core-axe”, appeared.

Axe made by primitive Homo sapiens, Lake Eyasi, Tanzania (from Mehlman, 1985)

A core-axe superficially resembled a small, fat hand-axe. But it was a radically different tool. Core-axes are often broken in half, suggesting they were swung with more force than a hand-axe. What’s more, microscopic scratches show they were bound to wooden handles. The core-axe seems to be a true, hafted axe.

Bound to a handle, an axe bit can be swung with higher speed than a handheld axe, generating much higher forces. This simple stone axe was likely used as hunter-gatherers use axes today- to make weapons like spears, to cut firewood and branches for shelters, to open hollow trees for honey*.

Exactly where the hafted axe came from and who invented it is unclear. Core-axes have been found throughout Africa, however, and in association with archaic Homo sapiens, suggesting it may have been invented by them. Neanderthals never seem to have adopted the axe, but it was probably among the tools carried by modern humans during the Out-of-Africa migration.

*it is not impossible that axes were used as weapons- as in medieval times- but modern hunter-gatherers typically settled grudges and waged war with ranged weapons like spears and bows, or wooden clubs, and our ancestors likely did the same. 

Beads

Beads are probably the oldest form of ornament. Almost all human cultures have used beads- they have been worn by Egyptian pharoahs, Minoan kings, Chinese emperors, Indian warriors, by hunter-gatherers like the Bushmen.

The oldest known beads date to over 140,000 years ago, and come from Morocco. They were made by piercing a snail shell’s lip, then stringing the shells on a cord. At the time, North Africa was probably still inhabited by primitive Homo sapiens, so the beads’ makers were not modern humans.

Ostrich eggshell beads from Kondoa, northwest Tanzania, Sandawe tribe(?) Photo by Nick Longrich.

Shell beads would later appear in Israel, 100,000-135,000 years ago. In Spain, 115,000-120,000 years ago, Neanderthals wore beads. Finally, modern humans in southern Africa adopted shell beds, 78,000 years ago. Later tribes like the Bushmen and Hadzabe would replace the seashell with more readily available ostrich eggshell. The implication is that the tradition of wearing necklaces, favored by today’s queens, prom queens, movie stars and rap stars— may not be a modern human tradition, but one invented by our extinct relatives, then passed from culture to culture across the world- and finally, down to us.

Bow and Arrow

One of the last and most important innovations of the stone age was the bow and arrow. The first evidence for arrows comes from southern Africa, with arrowheads there dating to at least 60,000 years ago. These arrows were probably made by the ancient ancestors of the modern Bushmen, who have lived in southern Africa for perhaps a quarter-million years. Bows are almost certainly connected to the tradition of stringed musical instruments among the Bushmen and Pygmies— but whether the weapon gave rise to the music, or music to the weapon, is unknown.

Hadzabe hunter taking aim with a bow. Lake Eyasi, northwest Tanzania. Nick Longrich Photo.

Soon after, bows and arrows spread to modern Homo sapiens in East Africa. From there, bows reached south Asia 50,000 years ago, and modern humans in Europe 40,000 years ago. Curiously, the first Native Americans used spears, not bows. Bows arrived later, around 12,000 years ago in Alaska, then spread from North America to South America, all the way to Tierra del Fuego.

Bows were highly effective weapons in hunting, and in war. The bow’s main advantage was long-range accuracy- it was effectively the stone age sniper rifle. Thrown spears are only accurate to around 20 meters, but a hunter-gatherer’s bow is accurate to 50 meters or more. An arrow’s small size also means an archer can carry more, giving them more shots at their target. The arrow’s smaller tip makes a smaller wound than a spearhead, and arrows carry less kinetic energy than a spear. But the development of poison arrows- using substances like Euphorbia and Adenium, snake venom, haemotoxic insect blood, even ricin- made an arrow just as deadly, if not moreso.

Musical instruments from South Africa. Did the musical traditions of the Bushmen arise from the bow- or give rise to it? From Walton, 1956.

Neanderthals never adopted the bow. Yet the timing of its spread suggests it was probably used by modern humans in wars with Neanderthals, and may have been key to Homo sapiens victory over them.

Trading Technology

Modern cultures build on ideas from around the world. “Western Civilization”, for example, wasn’t simply an invention of western Europe. It drew on innovations from everywhere- Greek science and philosophy, Roman political institutions, Egyptian letters, Indian mathematics, Arabic numerals, Chinese inventions like paper, guns, and compasses, American Indian crop plants like corn and potatoes.

Human civilization and progress have always been a team effort.

Archaeology suggests this dynamic is ancient, going back half a million years into the Pleistocene.

No, it’s not impossible that people invented similar technologies in different parts of the world at roughly the same time; and in many cases this is likely to have happened. But a simpler explanation for the available data is that many technologies tended to be invented once, then spread widely.

How did this happen?

It’s unlikely that people commonly traveled vast distances through lands held by other tribes, many of which would have been hostile to outsiders. Humans in Africa probably didn’t meet Neanderthals in Europe, or vice versa. Instead, technology and ideas spread through diffusion—transferred from one band and tribe to the next, and then the next, in a chain linking modern Homo sapiens in southern Africa, archaic humans in North and East Africa, and Neanderthals in Eurasia.

To a degree, conflict may have driven exchange, with people stealing or capturing each other’s tools and weapons. American Indians, for example, got horses by stealing them from the Spanish. But it seems likely that most of the time people simply traded for technologies- because it’s far safer and easier, and, historically, that’s how people exchange technology. Even today, modern hunter-gatherers who lack money engage in trade- Hadzabe hunters will exchange honey for iron arrowheads made by their Datoga neighbors, for example.

Archaeological evidence suggests trade is an ancient tradition. Ostrich eggshell beads from South Africa, dating to 50,000 years ago, have been found more than 200 kilometers from where they were originally made. As far back as 300,000 years ago, primitive Homo sapiens in East Africa made tools from obsidian that was sourced 50 kilometers away- a larger distance than modern African hunter-gatherer bands typically travel.

And last, we shouldn’t overlook the human capacity for friendship and generosity— some exchanges may simply have been gifts. Human history and prehistory were doubtless full of conflict, but then as now, people in different tribes may have had peaceful relationships- understandings, treaties, alliances, marriages and friendships- and may simply have given away their technologies to their neighbors.

The Stone Age Geniuses

The pattern seen here- single invention and then spread of innovations- has another remarkable implication. Progress may have been hugely dependent on single individuals, rather than the inevitable outcome of larger, historical forces.

Consider the bow. Given how useful it is, its invention seems obvious in retrospect. But if it really was so obvious, we’d see bows invented repeatedly in different parts of the world. That’s not what happened, however. American Indians didn’t invent the bow, neither did Australian Aborigines, or ancient people in Europe or Asia.

Instead, it seems one very clever Bushman came up with the bow, and everyone else adopted it. That hunter’s invention would change the course of human history for thousands of years to come, helping determine the outcome of conflicts between peoples and empires. Its invention contributed to the defeat of Neanderthals in Europe, French knights by English longbowmen at Agincourt, American settlers by Comanche and Sioux—and pretty much everyone by the Mongolian hordes. And it may have even given rise to our classical symphonies and the music on the radio.

The prehistoric pattern is similar to what we see in historic times. Some innovations were developed many times- farming, civilization, calendars, pyramids, beer, mathematics and writing were invented independently around the world, for example. Certain inventions may be obvious enough that they emerge in a predictable fashion in response to their culture’s needs.

But many key innovations- the wheel, gunpowder, the modern printing press, vaccination, the compass- were invented just once, then became widespread. And likewise a handful of individuals- Jobs, Edison, Tesla, the Wright Brothers, Watt, Babbage, Archimedes- played an outsized role in driving technological evolution- which suggests individual creativity plays as much a role as larger historical trends.

That suggests the odds of hitting on a major technological innovation is low. It wasn’t necessarily inevitable that fire, or spearpoints, axes, ornament or bows would be discovered when they were. Then, as now, one person could literally change the course of history, with nothing more than an idea.

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