Humans shaped stone axes 1.8 million years ago, study says

http://www.physorg.com ^ | 08-31-2011 | Provided by Columbia University

[seowulf]

I wonder why it took humans so long to develop any form of written language.

Writing came as a result of the need to keep records of commercial transactions especially for long distance trade. Early cuneiform tablets were almost exclusively shipping manifests and such like. Later came diplomatic messages.

Trade develops when there is a surplus, and surpluses come as a result of specialization (i.e. civilization).

So, written languages developed with cities.

[seowulf]

"Why didn't Homo erectus take these tools with them to Asia?"

Why don't New Guinea headhunters use chainsaws.

They are just as Homo Sapiens Sapiens as we are.

[Larry Lucido]

And those tools have been due back at Grunk’s Tool Rental all these years. The late fees will be a bitch!

[trailboss800]

I have a billion year old nut cracker. It looks just like a rock, but I’m sure it was used to smash things and is quite valuable. If anyone wants to buy it, give me a bump. Isn’t one of the precepts of evolution that infinite variation is seen but only the fittest survive? Why is this not just one of an infinite variety of shapes of rocks that we should expect to see? Why is this rock intelligent but a leaf is not.

[Red Badger]

They’ve had more time to learn......

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Red Badger. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[SunkenCiv]

One key to translating ancient (generally unknown) written languages is to find a multilingual inscription. That's how Egyptian hieroglyphic writing (and Demotic) as well as Old Persian was cracked.

In her Plato Prehistorian: 10,000 to 5000 B.C. Myth, Religion, Archaeology, Mary Settegast reproduces a table which shows four runic character sets; a is Upper Paleolithic (found among the cave paintings), b is Indus Valley script, c is Greek (western branch), and d is the Scandinavian runic alphabet.

[eartrumpet]

“Leakey was the Carl Sagan of Paleontology........”

You mean the quartzite chopper was billions and billions of years old?

[Red Badger]

Well, the quartzite probably was......

[Red Badger]

And still does.....

[Castlebar]

This was described in the amazing book by Bill Bryson, “A Short History of Nearly Everything” in 2003.

I listened to that book on CD. It has had a powerful effect on me.

[bigred44]

One of the important discussions in the book, in the Chapter, "The Rise of Life", was his description of the scientific impossibility that life could have been formed by accident.

"So we have a paradoxical situation. Proteins can't exist without DNA, and DNA has no purpose without proteins. Are we to assume then that they arose simultaneously with the purpose of supporting each other? If so: wow."

That's a profound statement that makes you realize that only God could have made it happen. And Bryson says it in an understated way. A great storyteller.

[blam]

They keep ignoring these humans in the Republic Of Georgia that are 1.75 million years old.
Oh, that's right, they're not suppose to be there...it does not fit (exactly) the 'Out Of Africa' theory.

Stranger In A New Land

Image: JOHN GURCHE PORTRAIT OF A PIONEER With a brain half the size of a modern one and a brow reminiscent of Homo habilis, this hominid is one of the most primitive members of our genus on record. Paleoartist John Gurche reconstructed this 1.75-million-year-old explorer from a nearly complete teenage H. erectus skull and associated mandible found in Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia. The background figures derive from two partial crania recovered at the site.

[Bellflower]

was using advanced toolmaking methods in East Africa 1.8 million years ago,

No, but humans today are sure good with shovels.