In everyday life, there is nothing more frustrating than having something stuck between your teeth. Thankfully, we can reach for the toothpicks. And it appears our ancient ancestors did the same. In fact, a 1.2-million-year-old toothpick fragment may be the earliest direct evidence that humans used plants as tools.
Our ancient ancestors probably frequently used tools made from plants. However, evidence of this is very difficult to find because plant material quickly decays. This means that the archaeological record of human tool use is heavily biased towards harder stones.
All of this suggests that the origins of human technology may have been greatly misunderstood.
stone age
The conventional view is that it all started over 3 million years ago with the first stone tools and the dawn of the Stone Age. But what if before that there was a botanical age based on woodworking and weaving of plant materials? Some researchers say it would be foolish not to think that plants could be part of the story. Masu. “Perishable material culture is an essential part of our evolutionary past,” says Linda Harcombe of the University of Exeter in the UK.
Now we can finally get a clearer view of this lost era. New technology has made it possible to find traces of plant-based tools that would otherwise have been missed. And by studying how modern primates use plants…
Source: www.newscientist.com
