Before highly sophisticated supercomputers and particle accelerators were ever conceived, experts now say one of the biggest leaps forward in tech ever happened 900,000 years ago. That high-tech advancement was a new generation of stone tools.
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00:00When you imagine technology, something like this, or even this, likely comes to mind.
00:08However, before highly sophisticated supercomputers and particle accelerators were ever conceived,
00:13experts now say one of the biggest leaps forward in tech ever happened 900,000 years ago.
00:18That high-tech advancement? A new generation of stone tools.
00:22The researchers say the evolution in Stone Age technology occurred in Spain,
00:26the first such find of these types of implements found in Europe.
00:29The researchers say this new type of tool, quote,
00:31demonstrates significant technological advancements and anticipatory behavior,
00:35with the stone tools having a specific sequence in which they were shaped,
00:38suggesting that the makers of the tools were following a shared template.
00:42They also utilized more materials in their 2.0 builds, like bone and wood.
00:46This also shows a wild change in the culture of our ancestors at the time,
00:50as previous untemplated stone tools were in use for over 2 million years prior.
00:54What's interesting is that this predates the racial split between our human cousins and Neanderthals,
00:59meaning both groups likely used and shared them.
01:01With the researchers adding these more advanced tools were better,
01:04provided more utility, and involved sophisticated planning and a more efficient use of resources.