TECHNOLOGY IS AS OLD AS MAN

By
Yohane Mbeeya Moono

The Middle Stone Age is a period in Human History which ran from about 50, 000 BC to about 10,000 BC. During this time People lived in both Open grasslands and Forest areas. They also lived in Valleys of Streams, Rivers and Near Lakes like the Early Stone Age people

LIVING IN THE MIDDLE STONE AGE
The Middle Stone Age people got their food by hunting animals. They used stone spearheads, which were put on wooden handles to kill animals. Round stones were also used as ‘Missiles’ or throwing stones to kill animals from a distance. Big animals like Elephants were killed by being chased into the Pit-Traps made by the hunters. The Middle Stone Age people also gathered fruits and roots for their food. Sometimes they used round stones to break the nuts, which they had gathered. They lived and hunted in groups.

The Middle Stone Age period is described as a modern Technologically advanced period than the Early Stone Age period. During the Middle Stone Age, people had more sophisticated tools than the Early Stone Age people.

An example of how Middle Stone Age people looked like is Broken Hill Man. His skull was found in Kabwe in 1921 during a mining activity. He had a strong body and a big forehead. The Neanderthal Man whose skull was found in Dusseldorf in Germany in 1856, typifies an example of the Middle Stone Age man in Europe.

MIDDLE STONE AGE SITES

The tools of the Middle Stone Age people have been found in Mbala along streams in Lyamba, Chulungoma, Uningi Plains, Lake Chila, Mpulungu Fishers Bay and Kalambo Falls.

Kabwe, Victoria Falls and Luangwa Valley, are other places in Zambia where remains of the Middle Stone Age sites are found.

TOOLS MADE BY MIDDLE STONE AGE PEOPLE
These people also made tools from stone. However, this time they started making different kinds of tools for special uses. They made axes for Chopping, Pick-like tools for Digging, Spear-points for hunting and they made flake tools which they used as scrapers for working wood and cleaning skins. The Middle Stone Age people also used two round stones tied together with a rope, sometimes known as Bolas, for hunting. They used to throw them at animals.

Clearly Technology is as Old as Man because the Technological Advancement of the Modern Age are shrouded in the past. The Stone Age periods have greatly influenced the development of the tools that Man uses today. If History is as Old as Man then it is also safe to say Technology is clearly as Old as Man.

Reference
Moto-Moto Museum (1999 )In Search of Early Man in Mbala. Mbala. Moto-Moto Museum and Länsmuseet Gävleborg