Prompted by this article [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/28/archaeologists-in-morocco-announce-major-stone-age-find](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/28/archaeologists-in-morocco-announce-major-stone-age-find)
In: Earth Science
Archaeologists look at few different things to tell if something is an artefact or is natural.
The first is where you find an object. If you find a lump of rock far away from where that rock is found naturally, it suggests that someone or something brought it there. Similarly if you find it around other evidence of human settlement, like fire ashes or other tools, it suggests human involvement.
The second big thing is what the object looks like. There are a lot of “types” of stone axes, and each has distinct shapes and features. Some, like the “boat shaped” axes of Europe are instantly recognizable as worked objects.
On a smaller scale, making anything out of stone leaves marks. If you grind stone, you get tiny grooves (striations) from the grinding surface all shaping your axe head in different directions. Natural striations will all or almost all go one way (from glaciers) or follow a recognizable pattern (like tumbling in a stream).
Knapped stone is even more obvious, just because of how hard it is to do. Nature makes big, random cleaves through rock, with little chips that break down any edge that’s formed. To actually form a knapped stone edge, you need to make hundreds of precise chips, all going the right direction.
Either of these processes usually leave behind waste and materials. Archaeologists can find grinding stones and stone chips that were part of the ordinary tools or garbage from the process.
Finally, these kinds of tools took a huge amount of effort and craftsmanship to make. They were extremely valuable, and people cared for them. If archaeologists find a suspected artefact in a safe place, or buried with someone or something important, it gives a lot of information about its value and purpose.
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