Final answer:
A hammerstone or percussor is a stone used to strike another stone, known as the lithic core, to remove flakes and shape stone tools. This process led to the creation of instruments such as Acheulean and Mousterian tools, which were central to early human tool-making technology.
Step-by-step explanation:
A stone used to strike the core and remove flakes during the process of making stone tools is known as a hammerstone or a percussor. Hammerstones are typically made of a hard material such as quartzite or flint and were used to shape tools or weapons through a technique known as lithic reduction percussion. As opposed to the cruder Oldowan hand axes, the Acheulean tools were crafted by carefully chipping away smaller flakes from the stone core to form teardrop-shaped hand-axes and represented a significant advancement in tool-making technology, remaining the dominant stone tool for over a million years until the emergence of Mousterian tools.
Evolution of Stone Tools
The Mousterian tools were smaller and made from the flakes themselves, often utilized as knives, scrapers, and spearheads. These tools represented another leap forward in human ingenuity and tool-making capability. Similarly, tools from the Upper Paleolithic, like blade tools, indicated a profound shift in manufacture methods, optimizing efficiency and versatility.