These examples of Japanese paleolithic tools date from roughly 20,000 BCE. The object on the left (9 cm long) is a stone ax, used to shape the points of other tools. The object on the right (7 cm long) is a knife.

Many Paleolithic tools are so crude that they cannot be readily distinguished from naturally occurring rock formations. Archeolgists have found residual traces of animal fat on some "tools," strongly suggesting that men used these objects to hunt kill and skin animals, such as giant deer and Naumann elephants.