<P> Fire was used by the Lower Paleolithic hominins Homo erectus and Homo ergaster as early as 300,000 to 1.5 million years ago and possibly even earlier by the early Lower Paleolithic (Oldowan) hominin Homo habilis and / or by robust Australopithecines such as Paranthropus . However, the use of fire only became common in the societies of the following Middle Stone Age and Middle Paleolithic . Use of fire reduced mortality rates and provided protection against predators . Early hominins may have begun to cook their food as early as the Lower Paleolithic (c. 1.9 million years ago) or at the latest in the early Middle Paleolithic (c. 250,000 years ago). Some scientists have hypothesized that hominins began cooking food to defrost frozen meat, which would help ensure their survival in cold regions . </P> <P> The Lower Paleolithic Homo erectus possibly invented rafts (c. 840,000--c . 800,000 BP) to travel over large bodies of water, which may have allowed a group of Homo erectus to reach the island of Flores and evolve into the small hominin Homo floresiensis . However, this hypothesis is disputed within the anthropological community . The possible use of rafts during the Lower Paleolithic may indicate that Lower Paleolithic hominins such as Homo erectus were more advanced than previously believed, and may have even spoken an early form of modern language . Supplementary evidence from Neanderthal and modern human sites located around the Mediterranean Sea, such as Coa de sa Multa (c . 300,000 BP), has also indicated that both Middle and Upper Paleolithic humans used rafts to travel over large bodies of water (i.e. the Mediterranean Sea) for the purpose of colonizing other bodies of land . </P> <P> By around 200,000 BP, Middle Paleolithic stone tool manufacturing spawned a tool making technique known as the prepared - core technique, that was more elaborate than previous Acheulean techniques . This technique increased efficiency by allowing the creation of more controlled and consistent flakes . It allowed Middle Paleolithic humans to create stone tipped spears, which were the earliest composite tools, by hafting sharp, pointy stone flakes onto wooden shafts . In addition to improving tool making methods, the Middle Paleolithic also saw an improvement of the tools themselves that allowed access to a wider variety and amount of food sources . For example, microliths or small stone tools or points were invented around 70,000--65,000 BP and were essential to the invention of bows and spear throwers in the following Upper Paleolithic . </P> <P> Harpoons were invented and used for the first time during the late Middle Paleolithic (c . 90,000 BP); the invention of these devices brought fish into the human diets, which provided a hedge against starvation and a more abundant food supply . Thanks to their technology and their advanced social structures, Paleolithic groups such as the Neanderthals--who had a Middle Paleolithic level of technology--appear to have hunted large game just as well as Upper Paleolithic modern humans . and the Neanderthals in particular may have likewise hunted with projectile weapons . Nonetheless, Neanderthal use of projectile weapons in hunting occurred very rarely (or perhaps never) and the Neanderthals hunted large game animals mostly by ambushing them and attacking them with mêlée weapons such as thrusting spears rather than attacking them from a distance with projectile weapons . </P>

What kind of tools were used in the paleolithic era