November 23, 2009
Two months ago scientists announced that heat treatment - controlled baking of stone in order to improve it as a raw material for shaping into tools - had far earlier origins than had been thought previously. See the article "Heat Treatment Makes Better Stone Tools", below. We now have video discussing heat treatment, or fire hardening.
This video features Alan Alda interviewing Curtis Marean, one of the authors nof the October paper, in an African cave. Dr Marean is a professor at Arizona State University, is associated with the Institute of Human Origins at ASU and leads SACP4, the project researching Middle Stone Age cave sites in coastal South Africa. Watch this video now!