Tool Making With Fire - An Ancient Trick

For years Tool Makers and archeologists have tried to replicate the tools from the Stone Age such as arrow heads but have failed because they were missing a key part to the process. Kyle Brown who spends a lot of his time Tool Making has recently discovered what that missing process is and its fire. Pyrotechnology, the controlled use of fire, was thought to have only been around for 25,000 years but with this latest discovering in Tool Making it means that it was actually used 72,000 years ago or even 164,000.

It was in 2006 that Brown, from Cape Town South Africa, began his quest to find out how ancient Tool Makers created their tools. He set out hunting for stone outcrops that had the same silcrete so he could try and replicate the tool making process from the Stone Ages. There were many tests conducted and every time the tool making failed because either the stone didn’t flake properly or they weren’t as thick as the ancient tools etc. The failure rate of trying to re-create these tools was very high and it was only out of desperation that Brown tried using fire in the mix. Brown buried the tools in sand, built a fire on top of it where the temperature rose to around 300 degrees, left it for eight hours and then cooked them for another 8 hours. After the process was completed Brown dug up the stones and the stone flaked away easily and what was left was a glossy sheen that was an exact match to the tools from the Stone Age.

Browns recent discovery was posted in a recent publication of the magazine Science. Brown has always been fascinated with tool making and in his early years he began collecting volcanic glass and tried to mimic the arrowheads in their region. Years later Brown has made a huge difference into our knowledge of the tool making skills of the Stone Age.

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