They may look crude, but even some of the earliest stone tools were produced with skill and technical sophistication. The finding, based on an analysis of tools found at a 2.34-million-year-old site in Kenya, suggests that early toolmakers' abilities differed from place to place.
The earliest stone tools appear in the fossil record around 2.6 million years ago. This so-called Oldowan phase of toolmaking probably began with an early species of Homo and continued for 1.2 million years. Oldowan tools were simple, sharp-edged stone flakes that a fairly unintelligent hominid could have used for cutting meat. The assumption has been that they were made by mindless, random rock-banging.
Unfortunately, Geico does not have any clips or still photographs of their Caveman commercials available, and thus we are unable at this time to provide an instance of pure comic genius to this post.
Kennewick Man bill update Kennewick Man scientists lobby against bill
Scientists hoping to study the ancient skeleton known as Kennewick Man are protesting legislation they say could block their efforts. They say a two-word amendment to a bill on American Indians would allow federally recognized tribes to claim ancient remains even if they cannot prove a link to a current tribe.
Scientists fear the bill, if enacted, could end up overturning a federal appeals court ruling that allows them to study the 9,300-year-old bones.
Basically a rehashing of what we've posted here earlier.
Beer update 'Drinking beer in a blissful mood'
New study considers the importance of alcohol production in the ancient world
While the modern era has a fondness for the business lunch, the ancient world viewed the feast as an important arena of political action. Yet, new research in the April 2005 issue of Current Anthropology suggests that the story of how the food and drink arrived to the table is just as critical to our understanding of the past as the social behaviors at the table.
This is kind of an update to a story posted earlier.
Interesting non-archaeology article Why we should give up on race
Identity is fluid. One of us used to describe herself as "English" (erasing her Gypsy grandparent), the other as "British Jew" (or did he say Jewish?), but our shared whiteness was then always unspoken.
Today complex identifiers such as "black English" or "Brummie Punjabi British" or "British Sikh" speak both of a new ease and pleasure in difference, and of a political demand that racism become history. The confidence of the voices claiming these new multiple identities tells us change - not without fierce opposition - is happening.
For social and cultural analysts, this diversity points to the intensely political and social construction of the word race. Think of the ways in which we are asked to define our "race or ethnicity" in the census return or the doctor's surgery, when skin colour, geographical ancestry and nationality are offered as options.