Tools & manufacturing · c. 502,000 years ago

Hafting

Stone points bound to wooden shafts make the first composite tools.

Points from Kathu Pan, South Africa, dated to about 500,000 years ago show wear from being fixed to spears. Joining parts of different materials multiplied reach and force and led to spears, arrows and axes.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

Acheulean hand axe 1.8M years ago

What it led to 3

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

World population over a million years Latest: 6.27k million people (2000) Source: DeLong 1998, table 'Total World Population' (Kremer series); Kremer 1993, Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990, QJE 108(3)

World GDP over a million years Latest: 41k billion 1990 international $ (2000) Source: DeLong 1998, Estimating World GDP, One Million B.C. - Present; Wikipedia: Gross world product (DeLong table, cross-check)