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Malaysia: 1.8 million year old axe tools found!

by Maireid Sullivan | February 5, 2009 at 03:12 pm

484 views | 34 Recommendations | 8 comments

It is hard to imagine the human mind of 1.8 million years ago. I love the way Irish poet John Montague described this 'primitive' mind in A Slow Dance, (1976)– a man dancing in the thunder and rain, feeling the elements through his entire body. The closing line, "No one was meant to watch, least of all himself" set off an explosion of insight in my mind. This line eloquently presents the opposite possibility, where everyone is meant to watch, most of all ourselves. I think we have reached a point where we are able to reflect more generously upon our human roots. Our ancestors are not necessarily of 'lowly origins' –as Charles Darwin thought. We have moved on from the class conscious mindset of the mid 1800s. We have reached a stage where we are able to 'watch' ourselves, as individuals.

Re. the famous Voyager photo, with the circle around the earth, lit by a sun beam, Astronomer Carl Sagan said, "That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there ~ on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

Malaysia archeologists say 1.8 million-year-old prehistoric axes unearthed are world's oldest.–

By JULIA ZAPPEI, KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia January 30, 2009 (AP)–
Malaysian archeologists have unearthed prehistoric stone axes that they said Friday were the world's oldest at about 1.8 million years old.

Mokhtar Saidin, director of the Center of Archaeological Research at the University of Malaysia, holds a 1.8 million-year-old artifact during a press conference on Penang Island, Malaysia, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009. Malaysian archeologists have unearthed what they claimed Friday were the world's oldest prehistoric stone axes. (AP Photo) (AP)

Seven axes were found with other tools at an excavation site in Malaysia's northern Perak state in June, and tests by a Tokyo laboratory indicate they were about 1.83 million years old, said Mokhtar Saidin, director of the Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Science Malaysia.

The group released their conclusions Thursday, and other archeologists have not yet examined the results.

"It's really the first time we have such evidence (dating back) 1.83 million years," Mokhtar said, adding that the oldest axes previously discovered were 1.6 million years old in Africa.

However, other chopping tools, as well as human remains, have been found in Africa that are much older, with some dating back 4 million years, he said

Geochronology Japan Inc., a lab in Tokyo, calculated the age of the tools by analyzing the rock that covered them, Mokhtar said. The result has a margin of error of 610,000 years, he said.

The report cintinues here

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Amy Judd

at 15:32 on February 5th, 2009

Amazing - old finds like this can really provide an insight into the history of our existence.

Maireid Sullivan

at 21:18 on February 5th, 2009

Thrilling!

I.8 million years! and recorded history is only a few thousand. :)

Karenke4

at 16:37 on February 5th, 2009

Exciting! And I love the Sagan quote. Beautiful.

Maireid Sullivan

at 22:41 on February 5th, 2009

The rest of the quote is truly wonderful too. I haven't got the link to hand, but you could google it. The whole story of the Voyager journeys is mind-boggling.

I just uploaded the image he is refering to - the earth as a dot in a sunbeam. They put a circle around it so that we could see it.

Roy C

at 17:58 on February 5th, 2009

The book, The Clan of the Cave Bear, is one of my favorites. The book completely wiped out that feeling that Neanderthals were primitive.

I agee that "we have reached a point where we are able to reflect more generously upon our human roots".

Maireid Sullivan

at 21:15 on February 5th, 2009

My favs. too! :)

I read them all many years ago. Really fantastic! Wish there were more.
Thanks for the reminder, RoyC.

Roy C

at 21:34 on February 5th, 2009

Maireid, have you ever seen History Channel's "History's Mysteries" on the Neanderthals? If you can find it, check it out.

You see all the stuff that is in the book and learn how it is that we can correctly infer that they were social beings who took care of their weak and knew how to set bones, for example.

Maireid Sullivan

at 22:39 on February 5th, 2009

I haven't seen that, RoyC. I don't think we get that channel in AU.

Have you seen that amazing 1981 film "The Quest for Fire"?

I love mulling over the implications and meanings of gods of knowledge, gods of wisdom, gods of joy, etc. Miraculous and energizing.

I've written songs and poems about this, and made films too! In fact, today, I've been updating a short film I made in 2007, re. the Hill of Tara in Ireland, for the Smithsonian's endangered heritage sites listings.

I think we celebrate more than our human ancestors - we celebrate mineral, plant, animal, and human ancestors –all together. ...and, naturally, with all of that foreknowledge, we love to 'imagine' higher possibilities. :)

Thanks for chatting! :)