3.3 MILLION YEARS AGO
The hammerstone
Early toolmakers in Kenya struck stone with stone, sometimes resting it on an anvil, to knock off sharp flakes.
See the finds
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE HAMMER
Older than us.
Still in the drawer.
The hammer may be the oldest tool there is.
Long before metal, someone picked up one stone to strike another. Millions of years later the idea is the same: a handle, a heavy head and a well-aimed blow. Here is how the hammer got from riverbank to toolbox, with the sources linked.
Plain English, with the sources linked.
3.3 MYA and counting
Pick a hammer for the job- Stone on stone
- Iron heads
- A claw for nails
- One idea, millions of years
THE SHORT STORY
Strike, shape, repeat.
Three chapters in the life of
a very old idea.
ROMAN BRITAIN
The iron head
A smith’s hammer head from Camerton, with its almost circular eye, is typical of Roman-period hand hammers.
Hammer facts
IN YOUR DRAWER
The claw hammer
A handle, a striking head and a claw for pulling nails: the carpenter’s version most homes keep.
Which hammer?
QUICK CHECKS
Four things the
guidance says.
Look at the handle
OSHA guidance says a hammer with a loose, splintered or cracked wooden handle should not be used.
Check what you strike
Chisels, wedges and drift pins should be kept free of mushroomed heads, according to the same guidance.
Protect your eyes
Oklahoma State University safety guidance advises safety glasses every time you use hand tools, to guard against flying objects.
Use a hammer as a hammer
The same guidance says not to use a wrench as a hammer, and never to strike a screwdriver with one.
TWO FINDS WORTH KNOWING
Hammers before
humans.
Two digs show that striking one stone
with another is not only a human habit.
3.3 million years
Oldest stone tools on record
Tools from Lomekwi 3 in northern Kenya were made with a hammerstone, sometimes on an anvil. They are roughly 700,000 years older than the Oldowan tools previously thought to be the oldest.
LOMEKWI 3, KENYA · NATURE, 2015
4,300 years
Chimpanzee nut-cracking hammers
A University of Calgary team excavated stones about the size of cantaloupes, with wear that showed chimpanzees had used them to crack nuts about 4,300 years ago.
TAÏ FOREST, CÔTE D’IVOIRE · PNAS, 2007
The hammer is less an invention than a discovery: a heavy object, swung well, does work that hands alone cannot.
A QUICK MATCH
Which hammer
for the job?
Pick a job and see which kind of hammer has been made for it, from the very first hammerstones to the tools in a modern workshop.
This is a guide to the history and types of hammer, not safety training or advice for any particular task.
HAMMER FACTS
Six things worth
knowing.
Older than our own genus
The Lomekwi 3 tools, dated to 3.3 million years ago, were announced in Nature in May 2015 and pre-date the Oldowan tools by about 700,000 years.
The first kitchen hammers
At Nyayanga in Kenya, Oldowan stone tools 2.6 to 3 million years old were used to cut and pound meat and plants, including butchering hippos. The kit had three parts: hammerstones, cores and the flakes struck from them.
Not only a human tool
Chimpanzees in the Taï rainforest of Côte d’Ivoire used stone hammers to crack nuts about 4,300 years ago, a team reported in PNAS.
A Roman hammer you can weigh
An iron hammer head found at Camerton and held by the British Museum is 88 mm long and weighs 507.2 g, typical of Roman-period smiths’ hand hammers.
From ounces to 7 kg
Hand hammers are a handle and a striking head. Britannica gives weights from a few ounces or grams up to 15 pounds (7 kg) for stone-breaking hammers.
Some jobs need non-ferrous tools
OSHA guidance says spark-resistant tools made of non-ferrous materials should be used where flammable substances could be ignited by a spark.
QUICK QUESTIONS
Hammers, answered.
Short answers to the questions people ask most.
When was the first hammer made?
At least 3.3 million years ago, as far as the evidence goes. Stone tools found at Lomekwi 3 in northern Kenya are dated to 3.3 million years ago, and their makers struck stone with a hammerstone, sometimes resting it on an anvil. That is roughly 700,000 years older than the Oldowan tools once thought to be the oldest.
Do animals use hammers?
Yes. Researchers led by the University of Calgary dug up stone hammers in the Taï rainforest of Côte d’Ivoire that chimpanzees used to crack nuts about 4,300 years ago.
How heavy is a hammer?
It depends on the job. Britannica gives a range from a few ounces or grams up to 15 pounds (7 kg) for hammers used to break stones. A Roman-period smith’s hammer head in the British Museum weighs 507.2 g.
What is the claw on a hammer for?
Pulling nails out. Carpenters’ hammers often have a claw on the head for extracting nails, so the same tool can drive a nail and remove it.
What should I check before using a hammer?
Workplace safety guidance from OSHA says a hammer with a loose, splintered or cracked wooden handle should not be used, and university safety guidance recommends safety glasses when using hand tools. This page is a general guide, not safety training.
Sources
- Scientists discover oldest stone tools on record (Lomekwi 3, 2015)Stony Brook University
- Researchers unearth 4,300-year-old chimpanzee technology (2007)University of Calgary via ScienceDaily
- Iron hammer head, Romano-British, from CamertonBritish Museum
- Hammer: hand tool, types and weightsEncyclopaedia Britannica
- Hand and Power Tools (OSHA 3080)US Occupational Safety and Health Administration
- Hand tools safety fact sheetOklahoma State University EHS
- Early humans were using stone tools three million years ago (Nyayanga, 2023)Liverpool John Moores University
What changed
- : Reworded the first FAQ as "When was the first hammer made?" with an answer-first reply, and added a fact on 2.6 to 3 million-year-old hammerstones at Nyayanga, Kenya, from Liverpool John Moores University's 2023 release on the Smithsonian-led study.
Updated