Middle Stone Age Hunting Technology Found in South Africa

LIÈGE, BELGIUM—Live Science reports that 25 stone points discovered in South Africa’s Sibudu Cave indicate that people had mastered using a pointed bone tool to manufacture stone weapons some 77,000 years ago. Known as “pressure flaking,” the technique removes small flakes from a sharpened stone in a controlled manner. Veerle Rots of the University of Liège said that some of the stone weapons in the study had been worked on both sides, and more than half of them bore evidence that they had been used for hunting, including impact-related damage, animal blood and bone, and traces of resin to attach them to wooden shafts for throwing. For more, go to “Earliest Stone Tools.”