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Published online 18 May 2004 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news040517-4

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Early man had mining in mind

Flint analysis sheds light on our ancestors' digging skills.

AnIsraeli research team has caught our ancestors in the act of learning to mine raw materials for tools. The discovery suggests that some cave-dwellers were mining flint 300,000 years ago, while their neighbours were still using whatever stones were lying around.

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