When we first created tools

Try CuriosityStream today: http://curiositystream.com/eons
PBS member stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to http://to.pbs.org/DonateEons

The tools made by our human ancestors may not seem like much when compared to the screen you're looking at now, but their creation represents a pivotal moment in the origin of technology and the evolution of our line.

Thanks to Fabrizio De Rossi, Julio Lacerda and everyone else at Studio 252mya for their excellent hominid illustrations. You can find more of their work here: https://252mya.com/

Produced for PBS Digital Studios

Special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping to make Eons possible:

Katie Fichtner, Anthony Callaghan, XULIN GE, Po Foon Kwong, Larry Wilson, Merri Snaidman, Renzo Caimi, Ordenes, John Vanek, Neil H. Gray, Marilyn Wolmart, Esmeralda Rupp-Spangle, Gregory Donovan, Ehit Dinesh Agarwal, Gabriel Cortez, Marcus Lejon, Robert Arévalo, Robert Hill, Kelby Reid, Todd Dittman, Betsy Radley, PS, Philip Slingerland, Jose Garcia, Eric Vonk, Tony Wamsley, Henrik Peteri, Jonathan Wright, Jon Monteiro, James Bording, Brad Nicholls, Miles Chaston, Michael McClellan, Jeff Graham, Maria Humphrey, Nathan Paskett, Connor Jensen, Daisuke Goto, Hubert Rady, Gregory Kintz, Tyson Cleary, Chandler Bass, Maly Lor, Joao Ascensao, Tsee Lee, Sarah Fritts, Ron Harvey Jr, Jacob Gerke, Alex Yan

If you'd like to support the channel, head over to http://patreon.com/eons and pledge to win some great rewards!

Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/eonsshow
Twitter – https://twitter.com/eonsshow
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/eonsshow/

The references:
http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-erectus
http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-heidelbergensis
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/evidence-for-meat-eating-by-early-humans-103874273
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/a-primer-on-paleolithic-technology-83034489
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/homo-erectus-a-bigger-smarter-97879043
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05696-8
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/oldest-known-stone-tools-unearthed-kenya-180955341/
https://antromuseum.missouri.edu/exhibit/oldowan-and-acheulean-stone-tools
De Heinzelin, J., Clark, J.D., White, T., Hart, W., Renne, P., WoldeGabriel, G., … and Vrba, E. (1999). Environment and behavior of 2.5 million year old Bouri hominids. Science, 284(5414), 625-629.
Ferraro, JV, Plummer, TW, Pobiner, BL, Oliver, JS, Bishop, LC, Braun, DR, … and Hertel, F. (2013). First archaeological evidence of a persistent hominid carnivore. PloS one, 8(4), e62174.
Gabunia, L., Antón, SC, Lordkipanidze, D., Vekua, A., Justus, A. and Swisher III, CC (2001). Dmanisi and dispersion. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews: Issues, News, and Reviews, 10(5), 158-170.
Harmand, S., Lewis, JE, Feibel, CS, Lepre, CJ, Prat, S., Lenoble, A., … and Taylor, N. (2015). 3.3 million year old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya. Nature, 521(7552), 310.
Kappelman, J. (2018). An early arrival of hominids in Asia. Nature, 480.
Scott, G.R. and Gibert, L. (2009). The oldest axes in Europe. Nature, 461(7260), 82.
Stout, D., Toth, N., Schick, K., and Chaminade, T. (2008). Neural correlates of tool making in the Early Stone Age: Technology, language, and cognition in human evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 363 (1499), 1939-1949.
Tuffreau, A., Lamotte, A. and Marcy, JL (1997). Land use planning and function of sites in the Acheulian complexes of the Somme Valley. World Archaeology, 29(2), 225-241.
Williams-Hatala, E.M., Hatala, K.G., Gordon, M., Key, A., Kasper, M., & Kivell, T.L. (2018). Hand pressure behaviors of stone tools and their implications for the evolution of the human hand. Journal of Human Evolution, 119, 14-26.
Zhu, Z., Dennell, R., Huang, W., Wu, Y., Qiu, S., Yang, S., … and Ouyang, T. (2018). Hominin occupation of the Chinese Loess Plateau for approximately 2.1 million years. Nature, 559(7715), 608.