• Question: what was the first ever invention?

    Asked by koonertwh to David, Helen, Ian, rhysphillips, Sarah on 14 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Ian van der Linde

      Ian van der Linde answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      The first ever “invention” is likely to have been a tool made by cavemen. It could have been a tool for hunting (like a sharpened rock for hitting animals with), or perhaps a tool for collecting food (like a stick than can be put down a hole to collect grubs). We will probably never know the answer to this question, but we do dig up tools from early man quite frequently, and we also sometimes see other primates using tools (like Chimps) which is probably a fairly good reflection of what the ancestors of humans were doing.

    • Photo: Helen Fletcher

      Helen Fletcher answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I like Ian’s answer below. I’d like to think the first invention was a tool for hunting with. Although, depressingly, it could easily have been a tool for fighting with.

    • Photo: Rhys Phillips

      Rhys Phillips answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Depends what you call an invention. I saw a talk by Robert Winston last night where he said the first piece of technology was an axe made out of stone so that could be considered the first ever invention.

    • Photo: David Corne

      David Corne answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      dinosaurs were around long before us; an accepted view is that raptors could be quite cunning, and we think birds evolved from them. Birds these days are known to use tools occasionally. So I reckon the first invention may have been a stick to help catch fish, or help get something to eat out of the ground. An early human invention was probably the use of a leaf as toilet paper.

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