The oldest axe

[Ziggy99]

May be of interest...

The oldest known axes, hafted and ground edge, are Australian. As much as 49,000 years.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-...ground-edge-stone-axe-fragments-found/7401728

Haft fixing was aided by means of a resin extracted from spinifex (Scott Cane First Contacts).

Indigenous Australian art goes back as much as 60,000 years - also the world's oldest known.

 

[300Six]

Interesting. Current generation "professors" of Anthropology/Paleontology/Sociology are increasingly liberal about describing implements based on stone flakes and wood chips. Makes me suspect an unearthed hubcap from a 54 Merc will be attributed to an intergalactic space craft some time in the future.

 

[Ziggy99]

Mistakes can happen but methodology is pretty good these days (speaking as a retired professor of sociology).

 

[DocT]

Thanks for posting that. Very interesting. Such finds are pushing back the dates of modern human achievement. They found stone tools in Florida that can be reliably dated to 14,500 years ago. They found a sunken city off the coast of India a couple of years ago that carbon dated at 32,000 years. I think we are learning that we actually know very little about our history.

 

[Square_peg]

Such finds are pushing back the dates of modern human achievement. They found stone tools in Florida that can be reliably dated to 14,500 years ago.

That and other discoveries have destroyed the old 'Clovis First' theory. It's clear that people from Asia came to the Americas before the ice free corridor opened in the north. So they must have come by a coastal route or some other method.