These blades showed commonalities across a large area of southern Africa that would have been inhabited by different groups. Source: University of Sydney.
An Australian team of researchers have discovered that early humans across southern Africa had large social networks and shared their skills with one another.
Several prehistoric blades (used mainly for hunting weapons) were analysed by scientists which led to the discovery that they were all crafted into the same shape, essentially telling experts, communities were in touch with each other. Dr Amy Way and her team from the University of Sydney (USYD) have dubbed the blade the “Swiss Army Knife”, reporting that large numbers of these alike tools were found throughout southern Africa.
Scientifically these tools are known as Howiesons Poort blades and were most commonly used for hunting and cutting various items such as wood, meat, and skin.
Dr Way, who heads the department of archaeology at USYD explained that in different parts of the world, these arrow heads are all different but in this particular region of Africa, they’re the same. She went onto to say that despite the big exodus of modern-day humans out of Africa around 60,000 years ago, this theory proves community connections were already established.
“Why was this exodus so successful where the earlier excursions were not? The main theory is that social networks were stronger then. This analysis shows for the first time that these social connections were in place in southern Africa just before the big exodus.”
Adding more to that was cultural behaviour specialist at Cambridge University Dr Paloma de la Pena who said that it wasn’t the blade itself that necessarily demonstrates sharing of information, but the construction of the entire tool.
“While the making of the stone tool was not particularly difficult, the hafting of the stone to the handle through the use of glue and adhesives was, which highlights that they were sharing and communicating complex information with each other.”
