[fhayek]

How smart were stone age people? They made tools, discovered fire, invented rope, created pottery, wove fabrics, developed leather, perfected food preservation techniques, domesticated animals...

Can YOU do any of these things?

[miliantnutcase]

You either perfected new survival techniques or you died.

[TXnMA]

"Can YOU do any of these things?"

Yep.

FWIW, that is a very simple tool -- made with mankind's first sophisticated toolmaking process:

It is a "prismatic blade" -- detached from a "core" with a single blow (on the left end).

The sophistication comes in preparing the core with a flat "striking platform" and then striking near the edge of the platform at just the right angle, in line with a ridge down the side of the core, (remaining as the "backbone" down the center of this piece) to detach the blade.

Achieving the "pointy" outline involves a little simple "crunching" around the edge -- with the same hammerstone (aka "hard hammer") used to knock the blade from the core.

There is no clear evidence of the use of a "soft (antler) hammer" for thinning, or of "pressure flaking" with an antler tip.

~~~~~~~~~

There is, however, an arcuate "notch" that might have been used as a "spokeshave" for shaping wooden projectile shafts...

As SouthParkRepublican said, "Like an ancient Leatherman. Pretty awesome."

All in all, a nice example of mankind's early progress in "lithic technology"...