Development of Tools Throughout Time Essay -- essays papers

Development of Tools Throughout Time Our world today has many different kinds of tools. I realized this when I was walking through The Home Depot a few weeks ago. On one isle are nails, and screws, the next isle there are power drills to go along with power saws and power sanders. Now imagine the world with no tools, no nails or screws. It would be pretty difficult to do most anything. We would have no houses to live in, no cars to travel to work in, and we would have no place of employment in which to work. Without tools our world would be nothing. This is the world our ancestors faced, and they had nothing but rocks and sticks. Homo Habilis had the challenge of being the first hominid with a larger brain, which allowed him to have the ability to do more things. With early hominids lacking size and strength to kill large animals they used certain objects to kill and devour these animals. This ultimately led to the development of tools. By 2.5 million years ago, a new human evolutionary trend had begun. The change to a upright bipedal posture, and existing flexibility at the shoulder, arms, and hands allowed hominids to carry and manipulate objects much more readily. Early hominids began to manipulate the physical world, inventing solutions to the problems of human existence. Instead of foraging, as do most primates, on a more or less individualistic basis for food sources, early hominids invented stone tools with which they could slay larger animals. This began a switch from scavenging to hunting as the main means by which meat was acquired. The earliest known tools yet discovered were found by Louis and Mary Leakey at Olduvai Gorge dating back to about two million years ago. They originally thought that these tools were made by the Australopithecus, but later determined that they were made by the Homo Habilis . The first tools found were classified as lower paleolithic tools. These tools belong to the Oldowan tool tradition. These tools which were opportunist in nature were characterized by an all-purpose generalized chopping tool. These were produced by removing a few flakes from a stone either by using another stone as a hammer or by striking a pebble against a large rock. Manufacturing tools this way is called the percussion method. Many of these tools were made out of quartz or lava; which were not the most common st... ...hominids we would have no understanding of any prehistoric life. Their technological advances helped us to create more efficient tools which allow us to research these ancient cultures. As one can see, we are presently expanding our modern tool kits every decade; so who is to say what technological advances will be made in the next several millennia's. Tools have evolved to influence, if not determine, human history. Bibliography Burenholt, Dr. Govan. The First Humans - Human Origins and History to 10,000 B.C. New York; Harper Collins Publishes. 1993 Haviland, William A. Anthropology - Ninth Edition Orlando ,Florida; Harcourt College Publishers. 2000 Johanson, Donald and Lenora. Ancestors New York; Villard Books. 1994 Leaky, Richard. Origin of Humankind New York; Harper Collins Publishers. 1994 Rowlett, Ralph M., Michael G. Davis, and Robert B. Grabe. Friendly Fire http://anthropology.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.discoveringarchaeology.com%2F0599toc%2F5feature3-fire.shtml Time-Life Books. The Human Dawn New Jersey; Time-Life Books. 1990 Wallbank, T. Walter. Civilization Past and Present New York; Harper Collins Publishers. 1992