A demonstration of how an ancient drill might have worked.
A demonstration of how an ancient drill might have worked. Aktopraklık Höyük Açıkhava Müzesi ve Arkeoloji Okulu

Not far from Bursa, Turkey’s fourth largest city, there’s an archaeological site called the Aktopraklık Settlement Mound, where people had built wooden huts back in the 7th century B.C.

But recently, the Daily Sabah reports, excavations at the site turned up an artifact a much older artifact—a 7,500-year-old flint stone that looked a lot like a modern day drill bit.

Archaeologists working at the site believe that the drill bit high have been used to create “bead-like pieces” found at the same site. Simple drills like this one have been found going far back into history: some of the oldest, simplest drills date back tens of thousands of years.