Bigwull, I interpreted “pre-historic” as meaning “before history”. And given the fact it was in reference to a “tool” that was fashioned by a member of the Homo genus, specifically a Homo sapien or human, then pre-historic would literally mean ….. before the history of humans. Thus, a “pre-historic human tool” would be an oxymoron. The 1st word negates the 2nd two words.
And Bigwull, that was a scientific fact, they really can’t date stone or flint. Just like they can’t date Stonehenge via the stones that were used for its construction. They actually estimate a date for Stonehenge via Radiocarbon testing of the contents of the soil around and underneath of those stones.
Stone and flint tools are also dated via Radiocarbon testing if they are found in an undisturbed location. But that doesn’t tell them how old the actual tool is, only when it was deposited there.
Stone and flint tools are also dated via their specific shapes based on literally thousands of other “finds”. For instance, the
Clovis Point was first found
in 1929 in the US southwest, from where it gets its name, Clovis, New Mexico. To wit:
In early 2009 a major Clovis cache, now called the Mahaffey Cache, was found in Boulder, Colorado, with 83 Clovis stone tools. The tools were found to have traces of horse and cameloid protein. They were dated to 13,000 to 13,500 YBP, a date confirmed by sediment layers in which the tools were found and the types of protein residues found on the artifacts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clovis_point
Bigwull, I found my spear point with my bulldozer … when I “cut” away about 1 ½ feet of soil it was buried under. Another ¼” deeper and it really would have been history.
I called the College, the Prof asked where I lived, and he was there within 40 minutes. After looking it over very carefully, and the place I uncovered it, he told me all sorts of things about it, including the 10K date.
Bigwull, “dated” artifacts are only good ……until they find another one that is older.
Bigwull, check this out, it’s in your “
backyard”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland