JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally in our "NewsHour" Shares
tonight: One scientist smashes, burns and
hammers artifacts.
But don't worry, they're replicas.
And as science producer Nsikan Akpan explains,
it's the key to understanding ancient human
technology.
NSIKAN AKPAN: On the campus of Kent State
University, you can literally hear the future
of studying our past.
This innovation is being made by Metin Eren,
a rising star in the field of experimental
archaeology.
METIN EREN, Director of Archaeology, Kent
State University: Experimental archaeology
is a way of studying ancient technologies
by creating really accurate replicas.
And because those replicas are worthless,
we can throw them and break them and shoot
them to figure out how they work, and reverse-engineer
them.
NSIKAN AKPAN: The first human technology emerged
three million years ago, and our tech became
more and more complex as our ancestors spread
across the globe and into North America.
METIN EREN: The Clovis point is North America's
first invention that were made by the very
first Stone Age Americans about 13,500 years
ago.
Clovis points are arguably the pinnacle of
stone technology.
There's nothing that's been made quite like
it either before or after.
But what's really unique about Clovis points
is that they have got these channels, what
are called flutes, that come from the base.
NSIKAN AKPAN: An Ice Age toolmaker would have
needed hours to make a Clovis point, and Metin
has found that creating the flutes is delicate
work.
The point can snap during the crucial last
step, and a snapped point meant starvation
for a Clovis hunter.
The reason for the flutes, and their function,
was an archaeological mystery for almost a
century.
METIN EREN: It really was experimental archaeology
that allowed us to crack the case.
Clovis people, for all intents and purposes,
actually invented shock absorption technology
13,500 years ago.
These channels actually thinned the point
so much that, upon impact, the base of the
point would crumple, like the front end of
a car, protecting the point from breaking
in half.
You have a much better chance of killing those
animals for food or resources.
NSIKAN AKPAN: It's not just artifacts that
Metin and his students are recreating.
The sounds made by early stone tools may be
important too.
METIN EREN: We made stone tools for three
million years.
There might be a link there between the sounds
that we're hearing as we make stone tools
every day and the types of language that eventually
emerged in the human lineage.
These observations that these ancient people
made about their technology and their surroundings
allowed them to create technologies that are
just astounding.
And you figure out how they work through experimental
archaeology.
So, really, experimental archaeology is the
future of the field.
NSIKAN AKPAN: A future with echoes of the
past.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nsikan Akpan in
Kent, Ohio.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And it is astounding.
Thank you, Nsikan.
