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Ancient Humans Made Millions of These – We Don’t Know Why
- pestatije 3y ago> The Acheulean handaxe was the most common tool of early humans, but we still don’t know what the heck they used it for
- gloyoyo 3y agoYou throw it at the prayer/topic board...
- ggm 3y agoI like the Sci fi "evolution" (Stephen Baxter, 2002) theory that making good hand axes was a bowerbird like breeding show ritual, with no intent to use: the value is proving you CAN. He probably had good inputs from his sources to fictionalise this. Can anyone recommend a good fast YouTube video summarising approach? 2x speed play only goes so far.
- zeristor 3y agoHow comes they’re found around the world. This could suggest that it is something people were using before they left Africa. Either that or they all found a common use for the same sort of thing.
- AHOHA 3y agoIf it’s ancient and you can’t figure out what they are for, there’s a high probability that’s either used for spiritual rituals (aka just getting high on some drugs), or something has to do with humans’ reproduction, sexual or maternal labour/delivery.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- MichaelZuo 3y agoI don't get it, isn't 'handaxe' pretty suggestive of its primary use? Sure a lot of them don't have noticeable wear but frequent sharpening seems like a plausible enough explanation, I don't see why more is needed.
- detaro 3y ago> I don't get it, isn't 'handaxe' pretty suggestive yes > of its primary use? That we don't know, that's the point. (And why handaxe is arguably a bad name, because it suggests a certainty about what it was used for that we don't have). If it were called "throwing toy" that'd also be pretty suggestive of a primary use...
- MichaelZuo 3y ago> That we don't know, that's the point. I don't follow, what exactly is the point? There are millions of things we can never know about ancient humans, nor is it likely these will be understood with any degree of certainty in the future.