Homo habilis: Culture

  Homo habilis, meaning handy man, was given this name by Louis Leaky due to his association with tool use. Homo habilis made stone tools in the technology called Oldawan. By a method called direct percussion, a core stone called a biface was hit with a hammer stone to produce flakes. The biface was made into choppers called the Oldawan pebble chopper of polyhedron and discoid shapes. The flakes were then used as scrapers.

  From use wear analysis of these stone tools it has been confirmed that Homo habilis was a meat eater. With the comparison of animal bones found in association with Homo habilis it was determined that Homo habilis was a scavenger as well, due to larger predator teeth marks on the animal bones. It has not been confirmed if Homo habilis made any sort of permanent shelter. Since no archaeological evidence has been found, they were most likely nomads. There is also no evidence of fire at this stage.

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