Making Silent Stones Speak: Human Evolution and the Dawn of Technology

had never really thought about how stone tools were made before reading this book. The authors not only examined stone tools from the beginning of hominids' use to quite recent use by people in remote islands of New Guinea but they made and used stone tools themselves. They make the case, very persuasively, that stone tools were the first technology. They suggest that making and using the tools drove hominids to expand their brains which lead to mutations bringing about modern man i.e. homo sapiens sapiens.

Along the way they talk about how archeologists and paleontologists work which I found very interesting. They also discuss some of the controversies and yet to be explained problems existent in paleontology at the time of writing show more (1993). I googled to see if some of these problems had been resolved since then but didn't find any breakthroughs. Schick and Toth are still working in this area in the Stone Age Institute they set up at Indiana University. It is obviously a labour of love for them. show less