London, June 22 (IANS) Advanced crafting of stone spearheads helped develop new ways of human thinking and behaviour.

 
 The technology took a long time to acquire, required step by step planning and increased social interaction across the generations.  
 
 This social learning contributed to the subsequent development of early modern humans’ cognitive ability to express symbolism and abstract thoughts through their material culture, for example in the form of decorated objects.
 
 Researchers at Lund University in Sweden presented their new findings on the early modern humans that existed in what is now South Africa, approximately 80,000 years ago.
 
 The findings show that people at that time used advanced technology for the production of spearheads and that the complicated crafting process developed the working memory and social life of humans, according to a Lund statement.
 
 “When the technology was passed from one generation to the next, from adults to children, it became part of a cultural learning process which created a socially more advanced society than before.
 
 "This affected the development of the human brain and cognitive ability,” says Anders Hogberg of Lund University.
 
 “The excavations have been carried out in a small cave; the location we have studied is called Hollow Rock Shelter and lies 250 km north of Cape Town,” adds Professor Lars Larsson of Lund.