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Tools

John Smith stumbled upon the ax head when he was walking his dog.

Cool Finds

A Man and His Dog Discovered a 3,400-Year-Old Ax Head While Out for a Walk in One of England’s Ancient Forests

Researchers believe the ax dates to between 1400 B.C.E. and 1275 B.C.E. and is a relic of the Bronze Age, when humans started to work with metal

Researchers found this hand ax, which appears to have been shaped around a geological feature imprint.

Cool Finds

These Big-Brained Ancestors May Have Loved Crystals Just as Much as Modern Humans Do, According to New Research

Archaeologists in Israel unearthed prehistoric hand axes that Homo erectus crafted from stones including fossils and crystals, perhaps a sign that they wanted to connect with the cosmos

This wooden tool, which was likely used to dig through mud, was found near elephant bones.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearthed a 430,000-Year-Old Stick. After Careful Analysis, They Say It Could Be the Oldest Wooden Tool Ever Discovered

Found in southern Greece, the stick was one of two wooden artifacts that appear to have been shaped intentionally, according to a new study

Researchers used an electron microscope to take a closer look at the bone fragment.

New Research

This Hammer Created From an Elephant Bone 480,000 Years Ago May Be the Oldest Known Tool of Its Kind Ever Found in Europe

Discovered in southern England in the mid-1990s, the artifact may have been made by Neanderthals or Homo heidelbergensis, according to a new study

A six-fingered version of the robotic hand

This Detachable Robotic Hand Can Scurry Around and Grasp Objects Just Like Thing From the Addams Family

With up to six fingers that can bend in multiple directions, the innovative tool could one day be used to carry out tasks in tight spaces

Just a few of the hundreds of bar-shaped whetstones found on the north shore

Cool Finds

Hundreds of Ancient Roman Blade Sharpeners Emerge From a Riverbank in England, Revealing the Ruins of a 2,000-Year-Old Whetstone Factory

Archaeologists think the newly discovered artifacts remained at the production site because they were deemed unusable. Large numbers of completed whetstones may have supplied other parts of the Roman Empire

Veronika scratches her back. 

A Cow Named Veronika Can Scratch Her Back With a Broom. Watch the Video That Scientists Are Calling the First Documented Evidence of Cattle Using Tools

The pet cow’s tool use challenges long-held assumptions about bovine intelligence

The trove included 60 complete tulas.

New Research

Archaeologists Unearth Cache of Aboriginal Stone Tools Buried in Australia 170 Years Ago

Known as “tulas,” the 60 artifacts are only the second discovery of this size to be found in Australia. Researchers think they may have been created for trade

Evidence of prehistoric flint tool-making dating to approximately 4300 B.C.E.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Digging Beneath Britain’s Houses of Parliament Discover 6,000-Year-Old Flint Artifacts and a 2,000-Year-Old Roman Altar Fragment

During restorations at the Palace of Westminster in London, excavations have revealed a trove of historic objects, the oldest of which date to around 4300 B.C.E.

Members of the Haíɫzaqv (Heiltsuk) Nation caught the crafty female wolf on camera.

Watch a Wolf Cleverly Raid a Crab Trap for a Snack. It Might Be the First Evidence of a Wild Canid Using a Tool

Footage from British Columbia shows just how intelligent wild wolves can be, but scientists are divided as to whether the behavior constitutes tool use

The first hand and foot fossils clearly linked to Paranthropus boisei reveal the human relative could have handled stone tools.

Cool Finds

Discovery of First Fossil Hand Linked to P. Boisei Suggests the Bygone Human Relative Could Have Used Tools

A new study sheds light on the enduring mystery of whether our ancient cousins were toolmakers, too

Some of the impacted points and bladelets found at Obi-Rakhmat

New Research

Could These 80,000-Year-Old Stones Be the World’s Earliest Known Arrowheads?

A new study suggests that fragments unearthed at an archaeological site in Uzbekistan look like other examples of arrowheads created thousands of years later

The Nyayanga excavation site in Kenya, in July 2025. Fossils and Oldowan tools have been excavated from the tan and reddish-brown sediments, which date to more than 2.6 million years old.

Early Humans Moved Stones Long Distances to Make Tools 600,000 Years Earlier Than Thought

A new study takes another look at some of the oldest known stone tools and suggests their makers transported materials for up to eight miles

This stone tool found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, along with six others, suggest hominins were present on the island and making tools far earlier than thought.

Cool Finds

1.04-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools Found on Indonesian Island Offer Clues About Some of the Region’s Earliest Human Relatives

The toolmakers or their ancestors might have arrived on Sulawesi by clinging to vegetation during a storm, but their identities remain a mystery

Two killer whales "allokelping" with a kelp stem between them

These Killer Whales Make Tools From Kelp to Massage Each Other in a Newly Discovered Grooming Behavior

Dubbed “allokelping,” it might be a unique cultural phenomenon that’s as endangered as the orca population itself

The crescent-shaped boomerang was carved from a mammoth tusk by hunter-gatherers some 40,000 years ago, according to new research.

The World’s Oldest Boomerang Is Even Older Than Scientists Thought, a New Analysis Suggests

Researchers revisited a crescent-shaped, mammoth tusk artifact discovered in Poland and estimated it’s around 40,000 years old

Stone Age humans were likely scavenging the remains of whales that washed ashore along the Bay of Biscay and fashioning them into tools. This projectile point made from a gray whale bone was found in Landes, France, and dated to between 17,500 and 18,000 years ago.

Scientists Discover the Oldest Known Tools Made From Whale Bones, Crafted in Western Europe 20,000 Years Ago

Stone Age humans scavenged the skeletons of several whale species along the Bay of Biscay in what is now southwestern France and northern Spain, according to a new study

The Schöningen spears on display in Germany

New Research

Nimble-Minded Neanderthals May Have Used These Wooden Spears to Hunt 200,000 Years Ago

New research shows that the weapons found in Germany are much younger than previously thought, suggesting they were made by skilled Neanderthal craftspeople

The antler fragment seen from multiple angles

New Research

This Intricately Decorated Deer Antler Was Used as a Battle Ax Before Being Repurposed as a Fishing Harpoon

During the sixth millennium B.C.E., carvers in present-day Sweden etched patterns into the artifact before redecorating it in a new style. It was likely deposited into a river as part of a ritual

The ivory fragments show signs of manipulation by early humans.

New Research

Are These Mysterious 400,000-Year-Old Artifacts the Oldest Ivory Objects Made by Humans?

Found in Ukraine, the fragments show signs of human manipulation—though researchers still haven’t ruled out the possibility that they were shaped by natural forces

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