hammerstone

ham·mer·stone | \ ˈha-mər-ˌstōn

How to pronounce hammerstone (audio)

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Definition of hammerstone

: a prehistoric hammering implement consisting of a rounded stone

Examples of hammerstone in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Most of the metapodials at Qesem were broken into fragments, and many were pitted and flaked as if they’d been hit with a hammerstone. — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, "The world’s oldest leftovers, left in Pleistocene storage containers," 14 Oct. 2019 The site’s capuchins use quartzite cobbles as hammerstones, and tree limbs and loose stones as anvils. — The Economist, "Capuchin monkeys have been using stone tools for around 3,000 years," 27 June 2019 None of the animal bones found nearby bears cut marks or cracks from hammerstones to suggest that people were butchering any of those potentially tasty grazing animals at Shangchen. — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, "Hominins lived in China 2.1 million years ago," 11 July 2018 The team also provided experimental evidence that hammerstones and anvils make similar fracture patterns in fresh elephant bones, suggesting by analogy that such a process could have been at work at the Cerutti site. — National Geographic, "Humans in California 130,000 Years Ago? Get the Facts," 26 Apr. 2017 The cobbles that served as hammerstones and anvils, then, could not have entered the layer by natural means. — Alan Burdick, The New Yorker, "Did Humans Arrive in America a Hundred Thousand Years Earlier Than We Thought?," 26 Apr. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'hammerstone.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

21 Nov 2019

Cite this Entry

“Hammerstone.” The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hammerstone. Accessed 13 December 2019.

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