World's Oldest Butchering Tools Reveal Origins of Human Teaching and Language (VIDEO)

When did humans begin to first teach one another? It's probably all thanks to butchering animals for food. Scientists have discovered stone tools for butchering animals that reveal humans' earliest efforts to communicate and teach others.

The stone tools were first used about two and a half million years ago. Over the next 700,000 years, though, the technology spread throughout the continent of Africa. In fact, researchers believe that these tools provide compelling evidence for the co-evolution of early Stone Age slaughtering tools and our ability to communicate and teach.

In this case, the researchers tested ways to convey Oldowan stone-knapping skills to more than 180 college students. These skills include the creation of butchering "flakes." In the end, the researchers found that while humans taught one another, they didn't need complex language to do it.

"These tools are the only tools they made for 700,000 years," said Thomas Morgan, lead author of the new study, in a news release. "So if people had language, they would have learned faster and developed newer technologies more rapidly."

What's interesting is that there was some kind of teaching going on. And when the advent of Acheulean hand-axes occurred, it may be a sign that language developed.

"Our findings suggest that stone tools weren't just a product of human evolution, but actually drove it as well, creating the evolutionary advantage necessary for the development of modern human communication and teaching," said Morgan. "Our data show this process was ongoing two and a half million years ago, which allows us to consider a very drawn-out and gradual evolution of the modern human capacity for language and suggests simple 'proto-languages' might be older than we previously thought."

The findings reveal a bit more about how humans first developed language and teaching skills. This, in turn, tells scientists a bit more about human evolution.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

Want to learn more? Check out the video below, courtesy of YouTube.

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