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Question: how do experts tell something like this might be a tool? As a layman it looks like a rock to me: https://media.nature.com/lw800/magazine-assets/d4158

Question: how do experts tell something like this might be a tool? As a layman it looks like a rock to me: https://media.nature.com/lw800/magazine-assets/d41586-020-02190-y/d41586-020-02190-y_18201476.jpg https://media.nature.com/lw800/magazine-assets/d41586-020-02...

oxfordmale 6y ago
These kind of tools have multiple fracture all running in the same direction. This means they are not a by product of accidentally tumbling against other rocks. Something has banged that rock over and over in the same position.
DanBC 6y ago
I think they look for "Conchoidal fractures", and then where they find the thing. https://www.sandatlas.org/conchoidal-fracture/ https://www.sandatlas.org/conchoidal-fracture/
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  I haven't tried knapping yet myself, but it apparently takes planning several flakes in advance, because one needs to leave well-positioned striking platforms for each flake. Single-click shopping sounds much less mentally taxing than stone age technology. https://peterborougharchaeology.org/archaeology-skills-techniques/identification-of-knapped-flints/ https://peterborougharchaeology.org/archaeology-skills-techn... http://www.pugetsoundknappers.com/how_to/how_to_instruction/PressureFlaking.htm http://www.pugetsoundknappers.com/how_to/how_to_instruction/...
- AlotOfReading 6y ago
  Not always, but it's one of the common indicators. The general process for survey identification goes like this: you walk around looking at the ground and notice the unnatural ones. This is a purely intuitive sense, so you pick one up and look closer to see that yep straight edges, conchoidal fractures, common material, found in a bed with other clear lithics, etc. Bag and tag.
singularity2001 6y ago
“If an artefact is a stone tool, you see numerous chips removed from the edge,” says Rademaker. He sees no clear evidence of this in the images in the paper — a point echoed by archaeologist Ben Potter at Liaocheng University in China.
mcswell 6y ago
See my comment above (made before I read yours :-() asking whether cutting tools would ever have been made out of limestone.
simonh 6y ago
The examples in that article are pretty poor, possibly selected because someone is shown handling them. Here’s a more comprehensive selection of tools from the same site. http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/stone-tools-chiquihuite-cave-mexico-08667.html http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/stone-tools-chiquihuite-...

oxfordmale 6y ago

These kind of tools have multiple fracture all running in the same direction. This means they are not a by product of accidentally tumbling against other rocks. Something has banged that rock over and over in the same position.

DanBC 6y ago

I think they look for "Conchoidal fractures", and then where they find the thing. https://www.sandatlas.org/conchoidal-fracture/ https://www.sandatlas.org/conchoidal-fracture/

082349872349872 6y ago
I haven't tried knapping yet myself, but it apparently takes planning several flakes in advance, because one needs to leave well-positioned striking platforms for each flake. Single-click shopping sounds much less mentally taxing than stone age technology. https://peterborougharchaeology.org/archaeology-skills-techniques/identification-of-knapped-flints/ https://peterborougharchaeology.org/archaeology-skills-techn... http://www.pugetsoundknappers.com/how_to/how_to_instruction/PressureFlaking.htm http://www.pugetsoundknappers.com/how_to/how_to_instruction/...
AlotOfReading 6y ago
Not always, but it's one of the common indicators. The general process for survey identification goes like this: you walk around looking at the ground and notice the unnatural ones. This is a purely intuitive sense, so you pick one up and look closer to see that yep straight edges, conchoidal fractures, common material, found in a bed with other clear lithics, etc. Bag and tag.

singularity2001 6y ago

“If an artefact is a stone tool, you see numerous chips removed from the edge,” says Rademaker. He sees no clear evidence of this in the images in the paper — a point echoed by archaeologist Ben Potter at Liaocheng University in China.

mcswell 6y ago

See my comment above (made before I read yours :-() asking whether cutting tools would ever have been made out of limestone.

simonh 6y ago

The examples in that article are pretty poor, possibly selected because someone is shown handling them. Here’s a more comprehensive selection of tools from the same site. http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/stone-tools-chiquihuite-cave-mexico-08667.html http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/stone-tools-chiquihuite-...