Nearly a Hundred 8,000-Year-Old Stone Age Tools Unearthed at a ‘Lithic Scatter’ Farm in Dartmoor

Tons of Stone Age tools were unearthed at a Dartmoor, United Kingdom farm. Experts were convinced our hunter-gatherer ancestors created them.

Stone Age Tools Discovered at a Dartmoor Farm

The site was located near the village of Lustleigh. Experts have visited the area before, but not where nearly a hundred Stone Age tools were discovered. They believed the over 80 Stonge Age tools may be 8,000 years old.

According to Emma Stockley, a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Leicester in the U.K., they have found lithics at the site every year. The place was considered a "lithic scatter," a collection of worked stone toolmaking debris.

The researchers chose the farming area based on earlier results and forecasting methods. According to Stockley, lithics were discovered shortly after the turf was removed from the test pits.

She added that ancient tools are frequently challenging to find. One reportedly needs an "extremely beady eyes." The tiniest lithic they discovered last week was only a few millimeters in diameter and was found by a keen student volunteer working with them for the first time.

The bulk of tools developed by humans during the Mesolithic period of the Middle Stone Age were carved flints. A flint is formed into tools using hammers made of pebbles and antlers. She explained that these tools would have included arrows for using bows to hunt in the dense forest and adzes, which are like axes but not quite for working with wood.

Flint is a fantastic material to use when manufacturing tools. It is the ideal material for producing tools because the particles are so closely packed together that when a blow is administered, the break will be foreseeable, and the tip will be razor-sharp.

The nature and shape of the piece of flint that is removed depends on the type of hammer used (pebble or antler), together with the force and angle of the strike. Different tools can be created in this fashion.

These flints would have been used for hunting, among other things, which may account for the large number recovered at this location.

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How Did The Farm Look Like Before?

According to Stockley, the vast moorlands of Dartmoor would have seemed considerably different from what it is today. She believed the place was covered with thick birch forest with sporadic stands of fragrant pine trees.

She speculated that these were areas where grazing animals would have gathered. It would have been particularly alluring for Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who relied on shooting red deer for food.

She clarified that it's difficult to describe exactly what the immediate surroundings of the place would have been like. However, in her opinion, the site was a little clearing in the woods with expansive views of the valleys below, which was an ideal place for roving herds.

Men, women, and children may have congregated in small groups around numerous fireplaces while clad in furs, leather, and woven grasses, telling tales, crafting tools, and discussing impending migrations.

Stockley anticipates that the forecasting tools developed for this study will contribute to the direction of Middle Stone Age studies in the future.

She admitted that she has been working on determining where these kinds of locations might be found on Dartmoor. She hoped her study would enable us to save these locations and the remnants of Dartmoor's prehistoric inhabitants.