stone tool industry, any of several assemblages of artifacts displaying humanityprs"s earliest technology, beginning more than 2 million years ago. These stone tools have survived in great quantities and now serve as the major means to determine the activities of hominids. Archaeologists have classified distinct stone tool industries on the basis of style and use.
An archaeologist makes use of many tools. Some tools are used to define the location of a site such as a transit. A transit is a tool that a surveyor would use to make the boundaries for a site. Maps, compasses and tape measures are also used to locate and measure the size of a site. Some tools are used for digging such as picks, shovels and buckets. Archaeologists also use tools like brushes to sweep away small amounts of dirt from the surface to locate artifacts. All archaeologists use a specialized tool called a trowel. A trowel is a digging tool with a flat, diamond shaped blade used to scrape away dirt and pick out rocks from around artifacts. Another tool, called a screen, is used to sift away dirt from artifacts. A screen is just wire mesh inside a frame that you pass dirt through in order to find small artifacts that may be hard to find otherwise.
