stone tool industry

Any of several assemblages of artifacts that display the earliest technology used by humans. These stone tools have survived in great quantities and now serve as the major means of determining hominin activities. Archaeologists have classified distinct stone tool industries on the basis of style and use and named them after the site of their original identification. The major industries include (in chronological order) the Oldowan, Acheulean, Mousterian, Aurignacian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian industries.

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