Are Cave Men primitive intellectuals?

Archaeologists have found a cave in South Africa with evidence that the first bipedal primitive beings to inhabit our planet may have developed a "high technology" of the Stone Age. Inside the rock facility, paleontologists claim to have discovered small blades that allowed the construction of stone instruments more than 70, 000 years earlier than previously believed.

According to Folha de Sao Paulo, the findings suggest that our early ancestors of Pinnacle Point (the name of the cave) had a greater capacity for complex thinking. For this reason, weapons production gave them a great advantage in terms of evolutionary instinct over Neanderthal Man, which may have granted them the title of "intellectuals of the time."

According to the authors of the studies that date the instruments found, the blades could have been used to make arrows or to serve as darts fired by hand throwers. This would allow them to be able to reach greater distances than handheld spears to hunt animals or even to defend against invaders.

Still according to Folha, anthropologist Sally McBrearty of the University of Connecticut said the timing of the appearance of this first finding is very significant. This date would coincide with the period when the first groups of modern humans began migrating from Africa to other continents, and this technology may have been a determining factor in this migration.