SRI LANKA: It was much harder for early humans to fashion small, delicate stone tools such as arrowheads than it was to make large, substantial ones like axes. Yet, by around 45,000 years ago, a community living in the rain forests of Sri Lanka had mastered this technology. A collection of microliths found in the Fa-Hien Lena Cave is the oldest assemblage ever discovered in South Asia. These advanced tools allowed people to thrive in the area’s difficult rainforest environment earlier than was once thought, by hunting small tree-dwelling animals.