Re: How did the millions of stone tools get on the savanna?
- From: RichTravsky <traRvEsky@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:23:28 -0600
Marc Verhaegen wrote:
(SAP)
SF:
How did the millions of stone tools get on the savanna? Did the lions make
them?
AF:
DD:
Thousands of stone tools, tens of thousands of scraps and millions of
natural geofacts, distributed mainly at waterside (per Mikey Brass) of the
Rift Valley (per Rick Potts) and associated rivers, streams, lakes and
seashores.
Very little on the savanna woodlands away from water sites of the Rift, no
doubt some stone tools remain from savanna chimps and apiths, used in
breaking hard mongongo nuts, and possibly inland shellfish or drowned
ungulates caught in wadi flash floods. Certainly the better ones found on
savannas were left during the wet season, when H left the muddy seashores in
search of inland resources like seasonal foods, clean water rain puddles and
minerals like ochre and basalt.
If the stones were sharpened all around, as many hand axes were, or
conchoidal (rounded) flakes, they well may have been bait traps, inserted
into fish and meat chunks or guts, possibly alternated with poisoned
bamboo/wood/bone needles (as KhoiSan still use with bows to kill large game,
before chasing them a bit to wear them out). This would result in lions and
crocs having "sharp gastrolith" at their death sites, whether in water or
miles away.
Lions might smell poison, but not round sharp stone fragments. They tend to
tear prey's flesh apart, then swallow chunks whole, like wolves, not
chewing, since their stomach acids are very strong. Only bones get licked
and nibbled with coarse tongues and teeth to scrape away any attached meat.
Raw meat chunks of the right size would be immediately wolfed down AFAICT.
Of course during the rainy season, large predators would have much larger
ranges and would be distributed thinly due to abundant water, unlike the hot
dry season when they concentrated at drying contaminated waterholes.
No evidence whatsoever that hominids put rocks in meat for predators
to swallow. None.
DumDum is an idiot.
.
- References:
- How did the millions of stone tools get on the savanna?
- From: Marc Verhaegen
- How did the millions of stone tools get on the savanna?
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