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In an effort to understand how early humans first made and used stone tools the authors went to the prehistoric sites of East Africa and, combining archaeological research with practical experimentation, learned to make stone tools themselves. In this book they examine the history of prehistoric study and the development of Early Man and stone use, and present the exciting discoveries they made through their own practical experiments. New in paperback for 1995.

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Library Journal Review

The authors, codirectors of the Center for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology at Indiana University, Bloomington, display their expert knowledge of stone tools in this account of the origins of the human species. The ability to master stone technology, they argue, was the key factor in the evolutionary success of our hominid ancestors. The authors' interpretations of early hominid tool use are based largely on experiments they performed, including making stone tools with million-year-old techniques, skinning animal carcasses, and leaving tools exposed in the environment for years to observe how they become buried. This book will appeal to nonarchaeologists who wonder just how one can make conclusions on ancient beings' lifestyles based on only a few old stones and bones. Some 100 black-and-white photographs and line drawings illustrate the authors' points. Recommended for academic and large public science and anthropology collections.-- Eric Hinsdale, Trinity Univ. Lib., San Antonio (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

``Tools are us,'' assert the authors, anthropologists at Indiana University, referring to the pivotal role that tool making and tool use played in transforming apelike hominids into modern humans. In East Africa, Schick and Toth learned to duplicate and use Stone Age-like tools for woodworking, animal butchery and other tasks. Drawing on this experimental fieldwork and on the fossil record, they conclude that approximately two million years ago, early hominids turned to flaked stone tools as part of a decisive adaptive shift stressing deliberate planning and manipulation of the environment. This development, they argue, set in motion a ``circular feedback loop,'' with advantageous tool use favoring a large brain to plan even more tool use, which in turn fostered social interaction and intelligence. Illustrated with 100 photographs and drawings, this lucid primer is an exciting exploration of the world's most ancient technologies, of human origins and of controversies in paleoanthropology. BOMC, QPB and History Book Club alternates. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

A readable popular account of human origins, written by two participants in a number of major finds. Schick and Toth stress very early developments, 0.5 to 2.5 million years ago. They also make extensive comparisons between behaviors of modern nonhuman primates and early protohumans, especially the relation between the manufacture and use of tools and hunting/scavenging. The authors examine the many theories about human origins and offer reasons to prefer some over others. They provide information on site choice, formation, and subsequent disruption by natural forces. They have made experiments to replicate the outcomes of site washing by heavy, brief rains. They have also experimented with stone tool-making to replicate the crude tools of these pre-Pleistocene creatures. (In this regard, the book is almost a manual for percussion chipping of stone.) Most (90%) of the study concerns hominids before the appearance of modern Homo sapiens; the authors race through a chapter on European Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Overall, the book is a good exposition of the subject, comparatively jargon free and lavishly illustrated with sketches and halftones. General; community college; undergraduate. R. F. G. Spier; emeritus, University of MissouriDSColumbia

Booklist Review

Anthropologists Schick and Toth conjure up vivid images of Stone Age life as they describe the first humanoid toolmakers and their crude but effective creations. Their fascination with the invention of tools is inspired by their belief in the essential role technology has played in our biological and behavioral evolution as well as the shaping of civilizations. They describe how the observation of primate behavior and study of the cultures of people still living pre-Industrial Revolution lives in places like New Guinea have helped anthropologists and archaeologists figure out exactly how Stone Age artifacts were made, but experimentation proved to be the key. Schick and Toth are members of a select group that has spent years out in the field studying Paleolithic sites and practicing the techniques our ancestors developed for making and using stone implements. These reenactments revealed not only the processes for making the earliest tools, but also how these tools were used for nutcracking, digging, animal butchery (even on creatures as huge as elephants), and woodworking. A cogent account of the tool-making impulse that separated us from the rest of the animal world and continues to drive us to new heights of inventivenss. ~--Donna Seaman