A mysterious group of early humans who made tools 55,000 years ahead of their time

Blombos Cave in South Africa may have harbored a group of early humans whose tool-making techniques outpaced those of other groups by many thousands of years. Today scientists announced the discovery of more sophisticated tools from this unusually advanced civilization.

Previously, researchers have found evidence that people who lived in Blombos Cave 75,000 years ago produced jewelry and shell beads that only became common among other groups of humans roughly 30,000 to 20,000 years ago. And now a research team led by Vincent Mourre has more evidence that the people of Blombos were the high-tech civilization of the early human world.

Apparently these people invented a tool-making technique called "pressure flaking," a way of creating very sharp knives, about 55,000 years before humans elsewhere in the world did it.

Full Story over at io9