Understanding Stone Tools
- 1). Go to your local public library and check out the section on anthropology and archaeology. The books there will help you learn about tools and weapons made in both the Old and New Stone Age periods.
- 2). Visit a museum that has exhibits featuring Stone Age tools. Look at the tools and weapons on display and try to imagine what it would feel like to use them in your day-to-day life. Think about how the simple tools and weapons on display could make life easier or safer for the people who made them.
- 3). Learn about prehistoric life and stone tools by getting your hands dirty working as a volunteer on an archaeological dig site. You can work as a volunteer through the USDA Forest Service Passport in Time Program or find volunteer opportunities on the web at sites like archeolink.com.
- 4). Understand how stone tools were made by making your own. You can purchase a flat knapper's kit to experiment with making stone tools in the same way prehistoric peoples made them. If you don't want to buy a kit, with a little research you can make your own. Your kit should include flint and chert blanks, a hammer stone and a piece of deer antler for pressure flaking and shaping the stone tools.
- 5). Use a hand ax or other stone tool to perform some of the tasks your Stone Age ancestors would've used them for. You will gain a better appreciation for how ingenious and resourceful prehistoric men and women were.