Was the knife mans first tool?

[hushnel]

Was the knife mans first tool?

No doubt it had to be an early invention but there is one that like the wolf was to first man, as it was to the knife. I believe that to be fire. Our achievements since the early days of pre-history have been based on knife and fire. The tool plainly was the mechanism to utilize the energy that is the potential of fire and vise a versa.

In the earliest days flint was common to both but I believe before flint blades fire was used to harden wooden points. It was the energy used to keep predators away at night, to char the meat that the blade took down, heat water, boil the nutrition out of coarse roots, harden the clay into usable containers and lengthen the day into the night creating time and light to repair and mend tools and clothing, to develop time to socialize and pass on the history of the people, to invent and ponder new ideas.

The knife used to modify and utilize fire ever more effectively is the measure of technological achievement. Fire was started with flint and iron pyrite, or bits of iron found lying about after fire or lightening strikes, the flint then thrown into the fire to harden and make the flaking more controllable.

The steam engine, fire, water and steel, power and tool right up to Apollo 11 and on, fire and tool. The best blades made in the fiery forge, imparting attributes to the alloys that otherwise could not be achieved. The two are like parts of each other, a synergy in the classical definition of the word.

They say our brain developed its great size by the consumption of protein, harvested by the blade and charred in the fire, preserved by fire and smoke.

When I contemplate this or upon one or the other the web just baffles me, it is so intertwined and fundamental to our place on earth.

It may be that the use of fire came first, and then the knife, then the ability to make fire at will.

I think about this way too much.

 

[hiwa]

Fire occurs naturally, so for a man-made tool, my thought would be a "hammer" ie, a rock...which flaked other rocks, producing a sharp edge, a knife if you will.

 

[IGotStabbed]

I would say man's first tool was... well.. hehe

 

[hushnel]

Dude, rocks occur naturally too

 

[JTR357]

Agreed,A rock(hammer) was man's first tool(& weapon).A knife & fire probably tied for second.

 

[monsterdog]

Sticks, stones & bones. Most likely entirely used as hunting weapons.

 

[2brothers]

The brain.
We all know that it doesn't occur naturally. There is evidence everywhere.

The oldest radiocarbon date known so far on a finely-made native copper tool is about 6700 years. This tool was found at South Fowl Lake, Minnesota

Neolithic (Stone Age) - Copper Age (or Chalcolithic period) - Bronze Age (Copper and Tin combine to make Bronze)

Couldn't find anymore info as to what kinds of tools were made though.

mike

 

[UpChUcK]

Dude, rocks occur naturally too

Lash a rock to a stick = hammer.

 

[CWL]

Rocks were the first tools. They were used to 'process' foods by tenderizing roots & bark, opening nuts, shells, splitting bones for the marrow, etc.

 

[JTR357]

You're about to hear wise words spoken by a wise man.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

There is good evidence that human brains developed as much as they did because of social interactions and fine manipulation -- talking and tool-making.

The first formed stone tools would have been hand axes rather than knives, but you could call them knife-like anyway, sort of an early ulu that could be used for scraping AND smashing.

Even apes will pick up a stick but they won't usually do much more than threaten with it. They can't read Practical Tactical to learn techniques for dueling!

 

[wintermute]

Likely the first tools were hammers/anvils (rocks) and clubs (bones and branches). After that, it was scrapers, awls, borers, choppers, with the only hafted tools being possibly spears (sharpened sticks). The scrapers, etc. probably had various uses. Achulean hand axes came next, with true hafted tools and fashioned projectiles not showing up until the Neandethals.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Rocks were the first tools. They were used to 'process' foods by tenderizing roots & bark, opening nuts, shells, splitting bones for the marrow, etc.

Not necessarily rocks, but it's an important point anyway, since our ancestors got most of their food by individual gathering. Once gathering became more communal (family-oriented) our intellectual capacity was increasing.

While it is common to refer to early man, early woman was the one doing most of the talking, basket and bowl-making, and food gathering and preparation.

Fire, knives, and hunting were secondary pursuits that pushed us to a much higher level once they caught on.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Good topic. Some extraneous posts have been moved to Whine & Cheese as who first made a knifelike tool from a stone.

 

[dawsonbob]

Thanks, Esav. Should have contained myself, but I wasn't trying to jack the thread, honest. Just me being silly (again).

 

[pedicabdriver]

I would imagine sharp sticks and rocks came before fire.

 

[hushnel]

I would imagine sharp sticks and rocks came before fire.

Could very well be. I have heard of a technique where a field would be set afire and the people would walk it taking the burnt critters. This may have been how our ancestors discovered the benefits of fire, they may have notice that the apex predators of the day ran from the fire, some one may have figured this another good use for fire.

Most assuredly they knew of these benefits before they learned the magic of its creation. Fire must have been very mystical by its obscure nature. There is little doubt in my mind that staring into the flames of a camp fire watching the substance not of earth, wind and water could lead to thoughts of spirits and other thing unfathomable.

Its may not be a tool as such, I mean the wind is not a tool but the devices used to harness its energy are. Fire is a different substance, unique but still part of every major thing and endeavor of mankind.

Yes the women did most of the work, they always have. They are much more in touch with mortality than we are.

 

[no-one]

The first tool was a pocketknife....God created it.....everything else before was merely practice.

 

[hiwa]

Dude, rocks occur naturally too

Point taken. I guess I was meanin the rock as a tool to make a knife, so the using of the rock as a natural tool. I reckon fire can be thought of as a tool for sure, because it does do work. Even all the elements that make up modern tools, all had their origins in nature , at one time or another.

 

[manowar669]

club/stick or rock. Since chimpanzees are poor throwers, they rarely grab rocks as weapons, although they do use them to open nuts. Chimps frequently grab branches/sticks and beat their surroundings or each other in dominance displays and tantrums, I'd say our proto-human ancestors did likewise. Australopithecus africanus used the humerus bones of antelope kills as weapons, and fossil remains of killings/murders exist which show skull fractures which match the epiphysis of the humerus bones impacting skulls, so first weapon, I'm gonna say is a club, either stick or bone. First tool (non-weapon use) would be rock. Or a blade of grass to catch termites, like chimps do.