Early hominids made tools that were used for many different purposes and whose shape changed as they were resharpened.
But Neanderthals and early modern humans began making tools that served particular purposes and whose shape was more uniform. A variety of clearly recognizable types can be identified.
Archaeologists have vigorously debated what these mean. Obviously some of the differences in shape reflect the function of the tools. Does this account for all the differences?
One explanation suggests that different recognizable sets of tools represented different groups. The overall similarity of the toolkits used by Neanderthals and early modern humans in West Asia, however, makes it unlikely that these early people were using different styles of artefact to symbolize their cultural identity.
Some tens of thousands of years later, however, style does seem to have become a feature of tool typology. At this stage we can begin to recognize clear styles that are limited to particular areas; not only in stone tools but also in other types of artefact - for example in portable art objects, clothing and cave painting.
In line with the greater intellectual capacity that is apparent in modern humans from this time, we can perhaps see here the development of the notion of cultural identity as expressed in objects.
