These tools could change what we know about Stone Age men and women

A new study led by the University of York could change how we think about who did what in Stone Age families.

It's often assumed that Stone Age men were the hunters and tool-users of their time, with women taking on roles of care giving and cooking.

But, looking at an ancient burial site where Stone Age people were buried, researchers found that stone tools were just as, or even more, likely to be buried with women as they were with men.

This could mean that women used hunting and building tools even more than the men did when they were alive.

These objects may look little, but they could have a huge impact

Other stone objects were found with children in a big study of Stone Age tools.

Stone tools were already known to be found at the Zvejnieki cemetery in northern Latvia, one of the largest Stone Age burial sites in Europe, but researchers hadn't paid much attention to them.

Because they were every day objects, it was thought that they weren't as important as other finds in historic digs.

But the Stone Dead Project, led by Dr Aimée Little at the University of York, working with Europeans including those at the Latvian National Museum of History, thought differently.

A closer look at the stone tools revealed a big finding

They used a microscope to have another look at these tools and found that they were used to work with animal skins, which would have been collected during hunting.

As they were buried equally, if not more so, with the women than the men, it changes how we view their roles in Stone Age groups.

Dr Aimée says: "Our findings overturn the old stereotype of 'Man the Hunter' which has been a dominant theme in Stone Age studies."

Dr Anđa Petrović, from the University of Belgrade, added: "This research demonstrates that we cannot make these gendered assumptions."