Stone Age technology returns to Coyote Hills

Patience was the primitive toolmaker’s greatest resource. It took time to knap a blade, or grind the edge of a stone adze. Once it was fashioned and put to use, however, the tool freed up time and energy that could be put to other uses. Mechanical leverage was another important aspect of tool making. A hand axe, a blade fashioned from stone, in the hand of an experienced worker could chop through wood well enough, but mounting the tool to a handle gave leverage, and therefore increased force. Fields could be cleared of trees and plants more easily, substantially advancing the spread of agriculture.

The same was true for hunting weapons. A spear could be thrown with only so much force, but creating a lever extended the reach of the throwers arm, increasing the mechanical force and the weapon’s penetrating power. Such leverage was the advantage of using an atlatl, or spear-throwing stick of the kind attendees of the Stone Age Olympics will witness first-hand this month.

Master flint knapper, Ken Peek

At the Stone Age Olympics to be held at Coyote Hills, participants will get a first hand experience of the kinds of tools early humans used to hunt and to make fire. Participants can enter a spear throwing accuracy contest sanctioned by the International Standard Accuracy Contest, the competitive arm of the World Atlatl Association (.basketmakeratlatl.com). Plaques will be awarded in men’s women’s and youth divisions. Other hunting weapons, such as the “rabbit stick” (a boomerang-like tool used by some Native American tribes) and bolas will also be among the tools demonstrated. Fire-making with “hand drills,” and flint-knapping fill out the program.

Stone tools first appear in the archaeological record more than 100,000 years ago, but most of the tools we now associate with the “Stone Age” were perfected in the Neolithic period (New Stone Age), approximately 10,000 to 3,000 years ago before the use of copper and later bronze made stone tools if not obsolete, less widely employed.  The dates at which societies adopted metal technology varies, in general, the Neolithic Revolution (a term coined by Australian archaeologist Vere Gordon Chile) saw the transformation of hunter-gatherer societies into settled agrarian ones. Some of mankind’s first tools were used for hunting, but with the advent of settled life, animal husbandry, and agrarian societies, the techniques learned from weapon making were turned to the practical project of fashioning adzes for hewing wood, digging tools for turning the soil, and finer tools that aided in making pottery, fashioning clothes, and preparing food.

Weapon making never ceased to be important, however, as settled societies tended to be easy targets for resource-hungry tribes. The advantages of settled society in terms of resource sharing, more stable social structures and increased life span outweighed the risk of attack. Settlement in areas close to water usually put societies in close proximity to game, and increased protein intake, and the raising of animals for food was a significant step in the stabilization of large areas. Increased productivity meant more mouths to feed, but also meant the establishment of villages, towns, and ultimately city-states in the bronze era. The pattern of settlement and society building finds parallels in the Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Eurasian contexts.

In some parts of the world where game and wild foods were abundant, such as certain parts North America, hunter-gatherer societies had less pressure to cultivate than others, though some Native Americans developed better strains of wheat and corn. Moreover, for people such as the Ohlone, metal technologies only appear with the arrival of Europeans, hence, their traditional tool-making skills continued to develop and get passed on. 

When park naturalist Dino Labiste started the Stone Olympics 2011, he had been thinking of “an event that would bring out families.” There had been some weekend events prior to that and Labiste decided to build on those, turning them into a single annual event with experts in fire-making, stone tools, and hunting techniques, including the “rabbit stick” and the atlatl such as the native Ohlone people would have used alongside bows and arrows here in the Bay Area. “Every year the attendance picks up, “ says Labiste, and 2015’s event drew “about 150 people.” So-called “primitive” technologies are often misunderstood, for it is easy to misjudge their effectiveness because “we simply do not live with them every day as our ancestors would have.”

Along with Labiste, flint-knapping expert Ken Peek will be on hand to demonstrate stone tool making, as will Mark Dellinges, atlatl expert (Dellinges can be found on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/user/markdel3. There you can see his videos of atlatl demonstrations).

Stone Age Olympics

Sunday, Sep 25, 2016

10:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Coyote Hills Regional Park

8000 Patterson Ranch Rd

(Meet at Dairy Glen Campground)

(510) 544-3220

dlabiste@ebparks.org

http://www.ebparks.org

Open to the public – event is free

Parking is $5.00