The use of stone hammers to produce sharp stone flakes鈥攌napping鈥攊s traditionally thought to be a process that ancient humans started doing intentionally or by accident before looking for things, such as animal carcasses and hard fruits, to cut. It is a defining feature of hominins and is seen as a massive leap of inspiration, or a 鈥渆ureka!鈥 moment around 3 million years ago. However, six 国产伦理 researchers and their team suggest there may be more to the story.
Metin Eren, Ph.D., published a arguing that the origin of knapping was instead a cumulative process that involved hominins attempting to recreate the naturally occurring sharp stones, or 鈥渘aturaliths,鈥 they had already been using as cutting tools. Eren said hominins could have been using natural sharp edges as tools for millennia before ever attempting to craft them.
