Long before metal, humans made tools from stone. Lithic technology covers the manufacture and use of those tools, from the crudest choppers to finely pressure-flaked projectile points. The oldest known stone tools come from Gona, Ethiopia, dated to about 2.6 million years ago. They were simple flakes struck from cobbles, but they mark a turning point: deliberate shaping of the environment for future use.

Making a stone tool is a subtractive process. You strike a core with a hammerstone, remove flakes, and shape the remaining piece. Or you use the flakes themselves as cutting edges. Skill matters. A master knapper reads the stone's grain, anticipates fracture, and knows where to strike. Mistakes are irreversible. Archaeologists replicate these techniques to understand how long a tool took to make and what skill level it required.

Major traditions

• Oldowan: simple flakes and choppers, over 2.5 million years old.
• Acheulean: large bifacial hand axes, from about 1.7 million years ago.
• Mousterian: prepared-core flakes associated with Neanderthals.
• Later industries: blades, microliths, and projectile points.

Stone tools survive when bone, wood, and sinew rot away. They are the most durable evidence of early human behavior.