Archaeologists find blade production earlier than originally thought

http://www.physorg.com ^ | 17 OCT 2011 | Provided by Tel Aviv University

[Charles Martel]

I wonder if they ever tried constructing a mnemonic memory circuit.

Hard to say... don't know if the Tel Aviv area was ever populated by bears.

[SMARTY]

The title is confusing, I associate ‘blade’ with metallurgy.

People made edged utensils long before they understood metallurgy or knew how to work metal to produce actual blades. Some primitive people still make edged utensils out of bone, wood, etc.

The most interesting thing I read about all this is ‘Book of the Sword’ by Richard Francis Burton.

[dartuser]

I wonder if they ever tried constructing a mnemonic memory circuit.

Irrelevant if their construction was not using stone knives and bearskins.

[Rich21IE]

Yea, well, this article is somewhat misleading; what they don’t tell you is that there’s significant disagreement about whether the creatures who made these instruments were Neanderthals, (Democrat Ancestors), or modern humans, (everyone else).

http://archaeology.about.com/od/athroughadterms/qt/Acheulo-Yabrudian-Cultural-Complex.htm

[org.whodat]

I Watched a Cherokee make them like a machine, he flaked them with a piece of deer horn.

The art is holding the work piece, one slip and the old thumb leaves.

[Red Badger]

Isn’t it kinda hard to hold when it’s H O T ?................

[Red Badger]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qesem_Cave

[BenLurkin]

“Unexpected”

[Red Badger]

Here is an obsidian blade. Looks very deadly............

[SMARTY]

Yup...very efficient.

[Red Badger]

It’s also beautiful and aerodynamic. I wonder how they came up with that combo? No computers, just a brain.............

[Red Badger]

REMINDS ME OF AN OLD JOKE:

A tourist and his family stopped at one of those roadside trinket shops/restaurants out west where they sell Indian souvenirs and handmade artifacts and crafts.

He spotted a box full of arrowheads of all different kinds and sizes, $5 each.

He asked the proprietor if they were real.

“Of course they are real,” he replied. “They are genuine old Indian arrowheads”

Skeptical, the tourist asked where they came from.

“From all over the place, even back of this store,” he countered.

So the tourist bought a couple for his kids as souvenirs and headed them all out to the car.

As they were loading up, he casually walked around the back of the store, and sure enough, he saw that the proprietor was telling the truth.

There sat an old Indian making hundreds of arrowheads............

[org.whodat]

LOL, I ran into an old boy that made Tommy hawks and sold them on ebay, he was good at flint also. Our family farm was an old Indian hunting camping area, I spent hours as a kid walking new plowed field hunting arrow heads. I had a big jar full, I gave them to my little nephew, that spend hours following me saying what ye doing. He is over six foot and about 300 lbs today.

[Red Badger]

I did that, too as a kid. Freshly plowed land near a creek right after a rain is the best time.................

[org.whodat]

That is a really good one.

[Arrowhead1952]

I’m drooling....

[Red Badger]

It looks ‘fresh’..................

[Red Badger]

I doubt that there could be any of those here in the Southeast, unless they traded for them or the raw materials from western tribes............

[Red Badger]

I thought it looked too ‘fresh’

http://www.modern-flintknapping.com/Featured-flintknapper.html

[org.whodat]

Probably was, the same Indian making the arrow heads had those as well, about 250.00 each. Depending on size, he was at the Ramp Festival Roan Mountain Tennessee.