History[edit]
The use of simple hammers dates to about 2,600,000 BCE[1][2] when various shaped stones were used to strike wood, bone, or other stones to break them apart and shape them. Stones attached to sticks with strips of leather or animal sinew were being used as hammers with handles by about 30,000 BCE during the middle of the Paleolithic Stone Age.[citation needed]
The hammer's archeological record shows that it may be the oldest tool for which definite evidence exists of its early existence.