Stone Tools

The evolution of human culture over two million years is marked by the ability to externalise thought through language and tool-making. Unlike other animals, humans developed proactive communication and creativity, fostering social bonds and cultural identity. Early stone tools like choppers and handaxes reflect imitation, tradition, and survival strategies, stimulating brain regions linked to speech and planning. These tools show consistency and purpose, suggesting learning through copying and forming group norms.

Handaxes, widespread and long-lasting, represent early cultural expression and identity. Their variations reflect adaptation and regional traditions, much like modern branding. As brain capacity expanded, symbolic art emerged globally, with ornaments, drawings, and sculptures expressing imagination, emotion, and spirituality. These artworks, often non-functional, reveal a shift toward self-awareness and abstract thinking.

Artistic techniques like exaggeration, abstraction, and metaphor engaged viewers and conveyed complex ideas. Handprints and stencils may have served as identity markers or ritual symbols. Such cultural expressions helped regulate relationships, communicate shared beliefs, and sustain cooperation. This “unnatural” cultural evolution was crucial for expanding populations and the rise of civilisation, showing that creativity, conformity, and symbolic communication are foundational to human history and society.