The Risky Business of Flintknapping for Early Humans
Flintknapping, the process of shaping stone tools, was far more dangerous than previously thought, with injuries ranging from small cuts to life-threatening wounds. Early humans risked these injuries to make stone tools, which were vital to their daily activities and overall survival. The study also suggests that injury risks may have played a role in social learning, as learning from a skilled individual would have reduced the risks associated with individual learning. Stone tools are the best evidence we have to track social learning early in our evolution because they withstand the passage of time.