Stone Age Weapons-Making Technology Unearthed In Armenia

Thousands of tools from the Paleolithic era some 325,000 years ago recovered from a site in Armenia have given scientists more data about how ancient technological developments evolved and spread across the globe. Researchers from all over the world, including a team from Royal Holloway, University of London, had reasons to believe they found strong evidence that an ancient technique called Levallois used to make hunting weapons was actually invented in Africa and later promulgated to other continents.

Proof of this theory was provided at a site in Armenina that yielded found tools related to this kind of technology. Researchers believe this technology was apparently already part of these ancient Armenian communities that thrived some 325,000 to 335,000 years ago.

In this part of the world, this technique is called biface that can be described as something similar to Levallois. These tools were analyzed and researchers dated the volcanic material used in the tools discovered in Nor Geghi in Kotayk Province, Armenia.

The discovery of thousands of these ancient tools provided fresh, new insights that ancient communities were actually more innovative considering they existed 325,000 years ago. These communities adapted two different technologies to make tools that were pivotal to their hunting culture.

As human populations expanded, the Levallois and biface techniques quickly spread across Africa to Eurasia. After dating the tools found in Armenia, scientists concluded the biface technique developed independently and is not a derivative of the Levallois, although the two are strikingly similar in technique.

Both techniques use a mass of stone shaped into hunting tools and weapons that resemble sharp, thin flakes. The difference is the Levallois technique shaped tools by striking flakes from a prepared core reminiscent of lithic reduction.

On the other hand, the biface technique is more basic. It uses two sides of a stone to carve out flakes to form bigger tools such as axes.

This archaeological study was published in the journal, Science.

http://www.chinatopix.com/articles/12693/20140926/stoneage-weapon-making-technology-found-in-armenia-325-000-years-ago.htm