• Question: What was the first ever material found underground apart from stone?

    Asked by 329merf49 to Angus, Catherine, Jenni, Melissa, Waqar on 21 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Angus Cook

      Angus Cook answered on 21 Jun 2016:

      Well stone would probably have been my answer… You’ve made this a tricky one because there are lots of different types of stone which are quite quite different. We know that flint, for example, was used by early humans for tools because it can be made to carry a sharp edge.

      My best guess would probably be gold. Gold can be found in relatively pure form without having to smelt it or refine it from an ore, so you don’t need a particularly high level of technology to find gold.

    • Photo: Melissa Ladyman

      Melissa Ladyman answered on 21 Jun 2016:

      Great answer from Angus! I am trying to think about what early people would have used and flint is the obvious one. I was also thinking about the wall-paint used by paleolithic people on cave walls- this would have had high iron content to make the red colour and might have come out of the ground.

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