This Friday article is dedicated to all those men working the grills this weekend.
There’s a reason why men like to fuss over their barbecue pits for hours on end and now, the rest of us are finally in on the secret.
Fire’s seductive draw is a tie back to the Stone Age when it helped innovate a better cutting knife.
Really.
Today on NPR’s Morning Edition, Christopher Joyce talked with Kyle Brown, an archeological student with the University of Cape Town, South Africa and Arizona State University. Brown has been studying why it is so many Stone Age tools found in the Cape Town area were made from silcrete while keeping in mind that this is not a rock that’s easily knapped.
However, he discovered that when the stone undergoes prolonged heating, let’s say in a campfire;
“The heat treatment makes the stones more brittle, making it easier to chop off clean flakes. This produces a fine cutting edge - like a modern day razor blade - good for cutting animal skins or making clothing. However, the breakable edge is not very strong, making it unsuitable for use as a chopping tool in wood working, digging or stone shaping.”
It’s loosely theorized that initial discovery of this process may have occurred after someone thought, “I wonder what would happen if I hit this hot rock with the cold knapping tool?”
But it was up to BBC News to report the answer to the most important question – just how did Brown prove his theory?
Well, by lighting up the fire pit in his backyard, of course.
"The fire requires a significant amount of fuel, which you need to gather in advance, together with the stones. Then you bury the stone in sand two centimeters below the fire, and, gradually, over 12 hours, build up the fire. You keep it at about 300 degrees for roughly five hours. Then you gradually let it cool down on its own so the stone does not crack. This can take 10 or even 20 hours. So you need to schedule your time, knowing that you need to be around the fire for 40 hours.”
The takeaway here then, is rather obvious.
When today's grill masters hang out by their fires for hours on end, they’re not just cooking up a fabulous protein dish or shooting the breeze with their buddies. They hearkening back to the time when fire helped them invent the next set of tools.
Really.
Read more here:
• NPR.com, August 14, 2009: Early Human Lessons: Hot rocks make sharper tools
• Science Magazine, August 13, 2009: Early tools were born from fire
• BBC World News/America, August 14, 2009: Early toolmakers were engineers
• MSNBC.com, August 13, 2009: Fire used to make tools 75,000 years ago
Comments
It's a nice article, but the author gets a bit carried away with his imagery.
I'm fairly sure no man has any memory of what the cave men did around their camp fires. Men hang around fires because they like the glow, and they poke at it with things because they are curious or bored or just can't sit still. In other words the discovery was likely an accident, like almost all discoveries.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!