The Oldowan Tool
1.) What did the Oldowan Tool do for early hominids? How do scientists know these stones were actually
tools? What is significant about a long infancy and childhood for hominids? Is language uniquely human or is it
part of the continuum of becoming human?
2.) Why did leaving Africa have to occur after early hominids had tool-making skills and could reliably add meat
to their diets rather than before? What role did fire play in human migration? Why is a mother-child bond so
critical to hominids? What occurred during the Lower Paleolithic that separates it from the Upper Paleolithic
period?
3.) What can we learn about the Upper Paleolithic from a study of its art? What makes Neanderthals unique in
the evolution of modern man? Why are there no Neanderthals left today? Why is there so little consensus
about the emergence of modern man? What evidence signaled the end of the Upper Paleolithic?
4.) What does human behavior have to do with the spread of disease? What is the relationship between length
of gestation, time spent in infancy and childhood, and the increased life span (particularly for reproductive
women) of human primates compared to that of nonhuman primates? What is the connection between the
abundance of food generated by industrialized agriculture and the ongoing issues of nutritional deficiencies
and famine?
5.) What is a biological profile and how is it helpful to a forensic anthropologist? What can be learned from
completing an individual’s biological profile? How is ancestry more useful to a scientist than race?
Sample Solution
The Oldowan Tool
The appearance of simple stone tools, widely known as Oldowan tools or the Oldowan industry, marked the beginning of our technological revolution. These artifacts appeared around 2.6 million years ago in the Savannahs of Eastern Africa. Typical examples are choppers made from battered, edged cores and heavy-duty scrapers. Most likely those Oldowan tools served as primitive cutting instruments and our ancestors might have used them to scavenge meat, cut plants, or conduct basic woodworking. Scientists knew that they were tools because they were clearly knapped, created by intentional flaking, and not the result of accidental fracture of rocks. Fire played a large role in the ability to leave Africa for the hominids. Through fossil records, it has been determined that Homo erectus were the first hominid to use fire as a tool. Fire played the role of protection and hunting. They were able to protect themselves from the weather, and were also able to devise an entirely new way of hunting.
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