
How Do We Know When a Hunk of Rock Is Actually a Stone Tool? - tintinnabula
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-do-we-know-when-a-hunk-of-rock-is-actually-a-stone-tool/
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kazinator
We know that a seemingly useless piece of rock is actually a tool when it
carries the markings indicating certification by IEEE POSIX and The Open
Group.

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pvaldes
I was about to say "is this china made in China?", but yours is much better

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vacri
Well, it depends on whether or not the archaeologists were caught knapping...

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awinter-py
see also manuport
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuport](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuport),
an object moved or carried without being worked.

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douche
Flying Spaghetti Monster, is some future archaeologist is going to have a
field day with the piles and piles of manuports I picked out of my dad's
garden and hauled off into the woods.

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boona
When research money is running out and you haven't come up with anything of
substance yet? Jk, it's an interesting article thank you for sharing.

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taneq
Laughs aside, clearly there's a conflict of interest here. While I'm sure the
vast majority of archeologists are ethical, it must still add some amount of
unconscious bias to a question that already depends so heavily on
interpretation.

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diogenescynic
Similarly, think about all the academic careers built on 'disproving' that
Shakespeare authored his plays--which is especially troubling because so many
academics put so much importance on their own college degrees they just have
to chip away at the reputation of someone who didn't have one...

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kiliantics
tl;dr not enough pictures of rocks, very disappoint

