Title text: "The academic archaeology establishment is suppressing my breakthroughs because of the disruption it would bring to their prepared-core flake-based toolmaking industry."
Alt text: https://explainxkcd.com/3129#Transcript
Alt text: https://explainxkcd.com/3129#Transcript
August 18, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Title text: "The academic archaeology establishment is suppressing my breakthroughs because of the disruption it would bring to their prepared-core flake-based toolmaking industry."
Alt text: https://explainxkcd.com/3129#Transcript
Alt text: https://explainxkcd.com/3129#Transcript
Keir Starmer will save any industry he believes is essential to toolmaking. We just need to convince him that universities are great repositories of toolmaking know-how.
April 12, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Keir Starmer will save any industry he believes is essential to toolmaking. We just need to convince him that universities are great repositories of toolmaking know-how.
Branches sharpened 400,000 years ago shine light on humans’ early toolmaking. https://scim.ag/3McCcdk
Oldest wooden tools may have been used to butcher elephants
Branches sharpened 400,000 years ago shine light on humans’ early toolmaking
scim.ag
January 29, 2026 at 5:55 PM
Branches sharpened 400,000 years ago shine light on humans’ early toolmaking. https://scim.ag/3McCcdk
Stone tools didn’t start with Homo.
At Lomekwi 3 (Kenya), deliberately flaked stone tools dated to ~3.3 million years ago push toolmaking deep into early hominin evolution.
www.nature.com/articles/nat...
#HumanOrigins #Paleoanthropology #StoneTools
At Lomekwi 3 (Kenya), deliberately flaked stone tools dated to ~3.3 million years ago push toolmaking deep into early hominin evolution.
www.nature.com/articles/nat...
#HumanOrigins #Paleoanthropology #StoneTools
December 19, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Stone tools didn’t start with Homo.
At Lomekwi 3 (Kenya), deliberately flaked stone tools dated to ~3.3 million years ago push toolmaking deep into early hominin evolution.
www.nature.com/articles/nat...
#HumanOrigins #Paleoanthropology #StoneTools
At Lomekwi 3 (Kenya), deliberately flaked stone tools dated to ~3.3 million years ago push toolmaking deep into early hominin evolution.
www.nature.com/articles/nat...
#HumanOrigins #Paleoanthropology #StoneTools
Kier Starmer's dad spunked all his toolmaking wages on brown ale and brasses, basically.
November 18, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Kier Starmer's dad spunked all his toolmaking wages on brown ale and brasses, basically.
i think i would have done well in the paleolithic toolmaking industry
June 29, 2026 at 2:35 PM
i think i would have done well in the paleolithic toolmaking industry
Along a road in Mower County, a sign reads, “Grand Meadow Chert Quarry - Wanhi Yukan Trail.” Wanhi Yukan is the Dakota name meaning “There is chert here.” Chert is the stone Indigenous people used to make everyday tools. At this site, visitors can learn about the history of Indigenous toolmaking.
Southern Minnesota quarry site reveals history of Indigenous toolmaking
Visitors can learn about the long history of Indigenous toolmaking at the Grand Meadow Chert Quarry in southern Minnesota.
www.mprnews.org
July 29, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Along a road in Mower County, a sign reads, “Grand Meadow Chert Quarry - Wanhi Yukan Trail.” Wanhi Yukan is the Dakota name meaning “There is chert here.” Chert is the stone Indigenous people used to make everyday tools. At this site, visitors can learn about the history of Indigenous toolmaking.
If Starmer quits and starts a toolmaking podcast he is contractually obliged to call it The Rust is Politics.
May 11, 2026 at 7:30 PM
If Starmer quits and starts a toolmaking podcast he is contractually obliged to call it The Rust is Politics.
The toolmaking for this process alone required the skills of a carpenter with the steady hand and eye of a jeweler. David Evans was the largest British block printer on a commercial level and their block archive was incredible. But sadly, the process came to an end in the 1980s.
September 26, 2025 at 11:58 PM
The toolmaking for this process alone required the skills of a carpenter with the steady hand and eye of a jeweler. David Evans was the largest British block printer on a commercial level and their block archive was incredible. But sadly, the process came to an end in the 1980s.
![Comic. [Person giving a presentation. On roll-down projector screen are images of two arrowheads made of “stone (traditional)” and “copper (my method)”.] PERSON: In the process of analyzing Paleolithic stone toolmaking, I’ve stumbled on an improved technique for producing points and blades. Instead of stone, my method is based on the heating and shaping of copper ore… [caption] Too late, I realized my entire archaeology dissertation had been based on a colossal misunderstanding.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreiakikmkekeyt46dak2ksbr262baxfn4vnxgspc5j3tobjdectzl44)
August 18, 2025 at 7:54 PM
MY GRANDDAD DROVE A LORRY [no word yet about toolmaking]
this is the "I am relatable and just like you" because his granddad bought a house in 1950 when they cost about 3 quid and a pack of unfiltered ciggies
this is the "I am relatable and just like you" because his granddad bought a house in 1950 when they cost about 3 quid and a pack of unfiltered ciggies
September 29, 2026 at 1:07 PM
MY GRANDDAD DROVE A LORRY [no word yet about toolmaking]
this is the "I am relatable and just like you" because his granddad bought a house in 1950 when they cost about 3 quid and a pack of unfiltered ciggies
this is the "I am relatable and just like you" because his granddad bought a house in 1950 when they cost about 3 quid and a pack of unfiltered ciggies
October 2, 2026 at 7:52 AM
Old enuf to remember being taught toolmaking was what differentiated us from all of them 🤪
July 23, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Old enuf to remember being taught toolmaking was what differentiated us from all of them 🤪
if, however, permitted a handcrafted spear as befits a toolmaking primate, i could kill many geese, and possibly even a swan
May 2, 2025 at 8:33 PM
if, however, permitted a handcrafted spear as befits a toolmaking primate, i could kill many geese, and possibly even a swan
Toolmaking debris from the Jojosi site in South Africa suggests fashioning versatile tool “blanks”—chunks of rock intended to be shaped into specific tools—from choice raw materials arose more than 50,000 years earlier than previously thought. https://scim.ag/4dYFBbl
Early humans turned favored rock sites into toolmaking assembly lines
Such prescient planning started 50,000 years earlier than thought, study finds
scim.ag
April 23, 2026 at 10:17 PM
Toolmaking debris from the Jojosi site in South Africa suggests fashioning versatile tool “blanks”—chunks of rock intended to be shaped into specific tools—from choice raw materials arose more than 50,000 years earlier than previously thought. https://scim.ag/4dYFBbl
Someone asked if I could show how my micro swage edge roller works, just for you! #jeffdeboer #mousearmour #toolmaking #miniature tools #smallsculpture
December 5, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Someone asked if I could show how my micro swage edge roller works, just for you! #jeffdeboer #mousearmour #toolmaking #miniature tools #smallsculpture
You can make your own decorative rivets using drill rod. #jeffdeboer #mousearmour #riveting #toolmaking #metalstampingjewelry #jewellerytechniques #metalarts #littlemetalfoxes #auarts #stampingart
September 11, 2025 at 7:16 PM
You can make your own decorative rivets using drill rod. #jeffdeboer #mousearmour #riveting #toolmaking #metalstampingjewelry #jewellerytechniques #metalarts #littlemetalfoxes #auarts #stampingart
Are animals smart? From dolphin language to toolmaking crows, lots of species have obvious intelligence buff.ly/DHqTNDS
Are animals smart? From dolphin language to toolmaking crows, lots of species have obvious intelligence
Many animals show signs of high intelligence, including strong memory, self-awareness and communication skills.
theconversation.com
December 29, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Are animals smart? From dolphin language to toolmaking crows, lots of species have obvious intelligence buff.ly/DHqTNDS
Time to make a stake to shape the visor for the 16th Century mouse. #jeffdeboer #mousearmour #littlemetalfoxes #gothicstyle #jewellery #metalarts #catarmour #armourmaking #toolmaking #smallsculpture #miniaturesculpture
October 27, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Time to make a stake to shape the visor for the 16th Century mouse. #jeffdeboer #mousearmour #littlemetalfoxes #gothicstyle #jewellery #metalarts #catarmour #armourmaking #toolmaking #smallsculpture #miniaturesculpture
very funny that toolmaking is one of the key things that allowed humans to transcend the limitations of our physical bodies and we've looped around to building tools that suck in all the ways we do
Automakers have used robots for decades. But now most major companies are betting that humanoids — human-shaped robots — will usher in a new wave of automation and help them compete against their Chinese rivals. nyti.ms/4wjmJJp
August 12, 2026 at 10:30 PM
very funny that toolmaking is one of the key things that allowed humans to transcend the limitations of our physical bodies and we've looped around to building tools that suck in all the ways we do
Cross-cultural analysis in non-industrial societies using eHRAF suggests toolmaking skill acquisition is mostly from kin (vs conformity or prestige)
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
March 20, 2026 at 6:47 AM
Cross-cultural analysis in non-industrial societies using eHRAF suggests toolmaking skill acquisition is mostly from kin (vs conformity or prestige)
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Killer whales turn kelp stalks into tools that they use to groom each other while cleaning their own skin
https://go.nature.com/3GiXpPQ
https://go.nature.com/3GiXpPQ
Killer whales exfoliate each other with home-made scrubbers
Kelp ‘loofahs’ might be first example of toolmaking by marine mammals.
go.nature.com
June 27, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Killer whales turn kelp stalks into tools that they use to groom each other while cleaning their own skin
https://go.nature.com/3GiXpPQ
https://go.nature.com/3GiXpPQ
The stake for shaping the parts for the 16th Century mouse armour visor is done and it works. #mousearmour #jeffdeboer #metalarts #catarmour #gothicstyle #sculpture #toolmaking
October 28, 2025 at 5:34 PM
The stake for shaping the parts for the 16th Century mouse armour visor is done and it works. #mousearmour #jeffdeboer #metalarts #catarmour #gothicstyle #sculpture #toolmaking
Exactly. To the extent that women 'need protection', it is from men. In any toolmaking society women are perfectly capable of fending off non-human threats
April 6, 2026 at 3:15 PM
Exactly. To the extent that women 'need protection', it is from men. In any toolmaking society women are perfectly capable of fending off non-human threats
Making a custom stake for the 16th Century mouse armour helmet. #jeffdeboer #mousearmour #littlemetalfoxes #gothicstyle #jewellery #metalarts #catarmour #miniatureart #miniaturesculpture #toolmaking #16thcenturyarmour
October 21, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Making a custom stake for the 16th Century mouse armour helmet. #jeffdeboer #mousearmour #littlemetalfoxes #gothicstyle #jewellery #metalarts #catarmour #miniatureart #miniaturesculpture #toolmaking #16thcenturyarmour