Stone Age Kids Learned by Doing

STAVANGER, NORWAY—Archaeologist Sigrid Alræk Dugstad of the University of Stavanger thinks that a discarded flake ax found at the Mesolithic site of Hundvåg in southwestern Norway was probably made by a child. “Given the numerous and characteristic failed strokes, it is also probable that the beginner had not received any form of direct instructions on how to proceed in manufacturing the tool. Maybe the purpose was to practice the technique in itself rather than produce a finished tool,” she said. Children probably acquired knowledge and skills working and playing alongside their parents and other adults in the settlement, she added.